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Science 22 August 1986:
Vol. 233. no. 4766, pp. 876 - 878
DOI: 10.1126/science.233.4766.876
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Articles

A Fossil Grass (Gramineae: Chloridoideae) from the Miocene with Kranz Anatomy

JOSEPH R. THOMASSON 1, MICHAEL E. NELSON 1, and RICHARD J. ZAKRZEWSKI 2

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS 67601.
2 Department of Earth Sciences, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS 67601.

A fossil leaf fragment collected from the Ogallala Formation of northwestern Kansas exhibits features found in taxa of the modern grass subfamily Chloridoideae. These include bullet-shaped, bicellular microhairs, dumbbell-shaped silica bodies, cross-shaped suberin cells, papillae, stomata with low dome- to triangular-shaped subsidiary cells, and Kranz leaf anatomy. The leaf fragment extends the fossil record of plants that show both anatomical and external micromorphological features indicating C4 photo-synthesis back to the Miocene. On the basis of associated mammals, the leaf fragment is assigned a Hemphillian age (7 to 5 million years ago).

Submitted on December 26, 1985
Accepted on April 28, 1986


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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