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Genus Taeniopteris Brongniart
Taeniopteris stipulata Hector. (Text-fig. 3, Figs. 4-7.)
1886. Taeniopteris stipulata Hector, Det. Cat. Ind. and Col. Exhib.: 61, Fig. 24A, 3.
Hector's name was published with an inaccurate figure, without description, of a specimen from Pakawau, in the collection of the New Zealand Geological Survey, here chosen as lectotype. The specimen originally agreed in outline with Hector's figure but has now been cleared of matrix to show the base and part of the apex.
Description. Leaf elliptic lanceolate, margin entire. Midrib with smooth surface. Secondary veins leaving midrib at less than a right angle, rarely dichotomising, then only once and always basally.
Dimensions. Length 6.5 cm (incomplete); width 1.2 cm; midrib 0.125 cm width at base; average angle of divergence of secondaries 81°; 36 secondaries per cm at margin (Lectotype B161/24).
Localities. See Table III.
Age. ? Turonian to Upper Senonian.
| Table III.—Dimensions of Taeniopteris Stipulata Hector. | ||
| Locality. | Length of Lamina cm | Width of Lamina cm |
| Midrib Width cm | Divergences of Secondaries | Secondaries/cm at margin |
| Shag Point (B165/75) | 3.8->4.3 | 1.1-1.7 (1.5) |
| 0.01-0.17 (0.13) | 76° | 18-40 (27) |
| Quail Flat (B125/2, /10, /37; 358/8) | 6.5-8.2 (7.3) | 1.2-3.2 (1.9) |
| 0.15-0.5 (0.28) | 76°-85° (79°) | 26-40 (34.5) |
| Pakawau (B161/19, /24, /25) | 3.2->6.5 | 1.2-2.7 (1.6) |
| 0.1 -0.2 (0.14) | 74° -87° (80°) | 28-36 (31.5) |
| Pakawau (B161/24, lectotype) | >6.5 | 1.2 |
| 0.12 | S1° | 36 |
| Pakawau* (B161/30) | - | 0.1.8 |
| 0.1 | 73° | 30 |
[Footnote] * B161/30 is the original of Arber (1917), Pi. XIV, formerly labelled Waikato Heads in error (McQueen 1955).
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Specimens from different localities vary in size (Table III), and there are minor variations in morphology amongst those from one locality.
The midribs vary from perfectly smooth to finely striate and occasionally (B125/10, B125/62) have a median groove in the basal portions, a feature probably dependent on the condition of preservation of the fossil. The number of secondary veins that dichotomise varies in different specimens, but such dichotomy is always found in the basal portions of the secondaries.
This species does not match any other New Zealand Taeniopteris. It differs from T. spatulata McLelland, which has been recorded from several New Zealand upper Jurassic localities (Arber 1917, Edwards 1934) in the following characters:
The midrib is seldom grooved, the secondary veins diverge from the midrib at a smaller angle, the secondary veins are more closely spaced, and those which dichotomise do so only in their basal portion, whereas in T. spatulata more secondaries dichotomise, and may do so anywhere between midrib and margin.
T. stipulata resembles T. howardensis Walkom (1919), which, however, is characterised by secondary veins that dichotomise in the outer portions of the lamina. T. stipulata is also very similar to the Wealden species. T. beyrichii (Schenk.) illustrated by Seward (1894, Pi. IX, Fig. 3) but differs in its more closely spaced veins (36 per cm at the margin, compared with 20 per cm in T. beyrichii).
Taeniopteris batleyensis Edwards.
1926. Taeniopteris batleyensis Edwards, Trans. N.Z. Inst. 56: 124, Figs. 1, 2.
Edwards provisionally classified this leaf, which is obviously a fern, as Taeniopteris. Mrs. W. P. Tolley has unsuccessfully attempted to isolate spores from the highly calcified sori. Accordingly, no change is made in the generic classification.
Locality. Bulls Point or Batley, Kaipara Harbour, B182/24 (Holotype).
Age. Maestrichtian.