Fissidens ezukanmae: A new species of Moss from Termite mounds in Nigeria.

Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they are at their most diverse in moist habitats, though some species are surprisingly drought-tolerant. Despite their simple nature, Mosses are an important part of ecosystems the world over, creating a water-holding layer which covers soil, rocks, trees and some animals, inside which entire miniature communities of organisms thrive. Mosses also differ from vascular plants in that they are haploid (have one set of chromosomes) rather than diploid (have paired chromosomes); though they have a diploid spore stage used to propagate the species in the same way that the (haploid) pollen of vascular plants is.

In a paper published in the journal Cryptogamie Bryologie on 27 March 2019, Maria Bruggeman-Nannenga of Zeist in the Netherlands describes a new species of Moss from Termite mounds in Nigeria.

The new species is placed in the genus Fissidens, a group of highly distictive and predominantly aquatic Mosses with a global distribution, and given the specific name ezukanmae, in honour of Izuchukwu Ezukanma, who collected the specimens from which the species is described from Termite mounds in Taraba State, Nigeria. The new species closely resembles the pan-tropical species Fissidens pellucidus, having rather large, clear laminal cells with firm walls and leaves elimbate or with limbidia restricted to the upper leaves (either not having elongate cells which help to support the leaves, or having these only on the upper surfaces)of perichaetial plants (plants in their reproductive stage during which they produce enlarged leaves that surround the reproductive cells). The new species has genuine mammillose cells (hair-bearing cells) and limbidia on both the upper as well the mid leaves of perichaetial stems. Moreover, it has axillary archegonia (spore producing bodies) in addition to the usual terminal perichaetium.

Fissidens ezukanmae: (A) Stem with terminal perichaetium; (B) branched vegetative stem; (C) part of stem with axillary archegonia (upper one left anomalously developed); (D)-(G) leaves; (H) basal part of vaginant lamina of subperichaetial leaf with limbidium; (I) leaf apex; (J) mid leaf; (K) insertion of leaf; (L) detail mid-vaginant lamina; (M) cross-section of stem; (N) cross-section of lleaf with bryoides-type of costa. Scale bars: (A), (B) 1 mm; (C) 0.5 mm; (D) 0.1 mm; (E)-(G) 0.1 mm; (H) 50 μm; (I) 100 μm; (J), (K) 50 μm; (L), (M) 50 μm. Bruggeman-Nannenga (2019).

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Mawenzhangia thamnobryoides: A new species of Moss from Shangri-la.

Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they are at their most diverse in moist habitats, though some species are surprisingly drought-tolerant. Despite their simple nature, Mosses are an important part of ecosystems the world over, creating a water-holding layer which covers soil, rocks, trees and some animals, inside which entire miniature communities of organisms thrive. Mosses also differ from vascular plants in that they are haploid (have one set of chromosomes) rather than diploid (have paired chromosomes); though they have a diploid spore stage used to propagate the species in the same way that the (haploid) pollen of vascular plants is.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 6 April 2018, Johannes Enroth of the Department of Biological Sciences and Botany Unit at the Finnish Museum of Natural History, James Shevock of the Department of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences, and Michael Ignatov of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences, describe a new species of Moss from the Niru River watershed in the Hengduan Mountains of Shangri-la County in Yunnan Province, China.

The Hengduan Mountains form the southeastern tip of the Himalayas, stretching from eastern Sichuan Province through northern Yunnan and southeaster Tibet into southern Myanmar. The range comprises a series of parallel north-south mountain ridges with south-flowing rivers between. The area is considered to be one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, with sharp divisions in flora and fauna both between the valleys of the range and at different altitudes on the mountains, leading to a very high number of endemic species.

The new species is placed in a new genus, Mawenzhangia, named in honour of Wen Zhang Ma, the Curator of Bryophytes at the Kunming Institute of Botany, and given the specific name thamnobryoides, in reference to the thickened dendroid erect shoots and branches of younger plants. The species was found growing on metamorphic boulders along the banks of the Niru River in a Pine/Oak forest. The individual plants grow up to 5 cm in height, and are yellowish green or brownish-grey and slightly glossy, with branching fronds.

 Mawenzhangia thamnobryoides. (1)−(2) Habit. (3) Portion of flagelliform branch. (4) Portion of leafy flagella. (5) Portion of leaf stipe. (6)−(8) Main branch leaves. (9)−(10) Secondary branch leaves. (11)−(12) Stipe leaves. (13) Perichaetium. (14) Inner perichaetial leaf. (15) Innermost perichaetial leaf with archegonia. (16) Perigonium. (17) Inner perigonial bract. (18) Innermost perigonial bract with antheridia. Scale bars: (a) 0.5 cm (3); (b) 1 mm (14)−(15), (17)−(18); (c) 1 mm (11)−(12); (d) 1 cm (1)−(2) and 1 mm (13), (16); (e) 1 mm (6)−(10); (f) 1 mm (5); (g) 100 μm (4). Enroth et al. (2018).

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Macrobiotus hannae: A new species of Tardigrade from Podlasie Province, Poland.

Tardigrades, or Water Bears, are a distinctive group of small (usually less than 1 mm) invertebrates related to Arthropods, Nematodes and Velvet Worms. They have a simple segmented body with four pairs of limbs, and are remarkably resilient to environmental stress, being able to withstand extremely high and low temperatures, complete desiccation and even exposure to vacuum. To date about 1200 species of Tardigrade have been described, from marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments, with about a dozen more being described each year.

In a paper published in the Turkish Journal of Zoology on 28 March 2018, Bernadeta Nowak and Daniel Stec of the Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research at Jagiellonian University, describe a new species of Tardigrade from Podlasie Province in northern Poland.

The new species is named Macrobiotus hannae, in honour of Hanna Tutaj, a PhD student at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Jagiellonian University. The species is described from 139 individuals and 146 eggs, raised in culture from an initial sample collected from some ground-covering Moss in a deciduous forest in Podlasie Province. Adults of this species ranged from 341 to 760 μm in length, were white in colour and hermaphroditic. Juveniles are transparent and eggs white.

Macrobiotus hannae in dorsoventral view. Scale bar is 50 μm. Nowak & Stec (2018). 

The new species is very similar in appearance to the previously described Macrobiotus joannae, which was first identified in Australia in 1983, and has subsequently been reported in Russia and Italy, though the two species could be distinguished using genetic methods. This leads Nowak and Stec to question whether the European reports of Macrobiotus joannae are in fact erroneous, and are really specimens of Macrobiotus hannae.

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Didymodon hengduanensis: A new species of Moss from the Hengduan Mountains of southwest China.

The Hengduan Mountains form the southeastern tip of the Himalayas, stretching from eastern Sichuan Province through northern Yunnan and southeaster Tibet into southern Myanmar. The range comprises a series of parallel north-south mountain ridges with south-flowing rivers between. The area is considered to be one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, with sharp divisions in flora and fauna both between the valleys of the range and at different altitudes on the mountains, leading to a very high number of endemic species.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 21 September 2016, Juan Jiménez of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica) at the Universidad de Murcia, David Long of the Department of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences, James Shevok of the Royal Botanical Garden iEdinburgh and Juan Guerra, also of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica) at the Universidad de Murcia, describe a new species of Moss from the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

The new Moss is placed in the widespread and specious genus Didymodon, and given the specific name hengduanensis, meaning 'from Henduan'. The species is described from five specimens from Lushu, Heqing, Gongshan, and Shangri-la counties in Yunnan Province and Yajiang County in Sichuan Province, collected by Davd Long and James Shevock during a series of joint expeditions with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The moss grows in dense tufts reaching 3.7 cm in height, and yellowish green in colour. It is distinguished from other Mosses in the genus Didymodon by its long, pointed leaves and by the presence of a leaf margin, made up of cells distinct from those of the rest of the leaf.

Habit of Didymodon hengduanensis in dry state. Jiménez et al. (2016).

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Didymodon novae-zelandiae: A new species of Moss from Manukau Harbour, New Zealand.                                                    Mosses are among the simplest and most ancient groups of plants. They lack flowers, seeds and roots, and only have very simple vascular systems...

Mosses from Late Eocene Rovno Amber. Mosses are thought to be among the most ancient of plant groups, and still make up a significant proportion of all plant communities. They are an ancient group, considerably predating vascular plants such as Ferns and Seed Plants, but they have a poor fossil record, largely due to their lack of...

Two new species of Moss from the Permian of Brazil.                                                         Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they...

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Didymodon novae-zelandiae: A new species of Moss from Manukau Harbour, New Zealand.

Mosses are among the simplest and most ancient groups of plants. They lack flowers, seeds and roots, and only have very simple vascular systems. Despite this primitive nature they are still some of the most abundant plants today, due to their ability to colonise short-lived environments and live upon other plants.

In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 3 May 2016, Jessica Beever of Landcare Research and Allan Fife of the Allan Herbarium describe a new species of Moss from the northern shore of the Manukau Harbour on the Auckland Isthmus of North Island, New Zealand.

The new species is placed in the genus Didymodon and given the specific name novae-zelandiae, in reference to the country where it was discovered. The Moss was found growing at a single site on a vertical sea-cliff made up of volcanic tuff (rock formed from ash) shaded by a canopy of Pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) trees. The plants brownish in colour and were small even for a Moss, with stems reaching 1-2 mm in length.

Didymodon novae-zelandiae habit with capsules. Beever & Fife (2016).

Areas of the cliff colonised by Didymodon novae-zelandiae were apparently more easily colonised by a larger Moss, Bryum clavatum, which was able to settle in such patches then competitively exclude the smaller Didymodon novae-zelandiae. This process, called succession by ecologists, is common in plat communities, where one plant modifies an environment in a way that makes it suitable for a second plant to take over and exclude the original coloniser. However the tuffa cliffs where the Mosses were found were extremely soft and poorly consolidated, with areas of the cliff surface regularly falling away and revealing fresh surface, suitable for colonisation by Didymodon novae-zelandiae but not Bryum clavatum. A more serious threat to the whole ecosystem appeared to come from invasive Kikuyu Grass (Cenchrus clandestinus) which was begging to settle soft unstable sediments at the base of the cliff.

 Type locality of Didymodon novae-zelandiae on Manukau Harbour foreshore. Didymodon novae-zelandiae (position arrowed) on the cliff face, below a denser band of vegetation (mainly Bryum clavatum), some 1.5 m above high tide mark. The remains of trunks of trees buried by eruption of nearby Mount Maungataketake can be seen in the cliff base both to the right and left of the standing figure. The large Pōhutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa) to the right, above, has now fallen from the cliff. Jessica Beever in Beever & Fife (2016).

Didymodon novae-zelandiae was found growing only at a single site, on a poorly consolidated volcanic cliff. Such habitats are not common, even in volcanic New Zealand, however the small size of the Moss does leave the possibility that it is present in other environments and has been overlooked. For this reason Beever and Fife suggest that it be classified as an Data Deficient Endemic Plant for conservation purposes.

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Mosses from Late Eocene Rovno Amber. Mosses are thought to be among the most ancient of plant groups, and still make up a significant proportion of all plant communities. They are an ancient group, considerably predating vascular plants such as...

Two new species of Moss from the Permian of Brazil.                                                  Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they are at their... 

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Mosses from Late Eocene Rovno Amber.

Mosses are thought to be among the most ancient of plant groups, and still make up a significant proportion of all plant communities. They are an ancient group, considerably predating vascular plants such as Ferns and Seed Plants, but they have a poor fossil record, largely due to their lack of easily preserved hard tissues. Almost all known Tertiary Moss fossils are from amber (preserved tree resin) mostly from Late Eocene Baltic Amber, and Oligocene Saxonian Amber. Rovno Amber originates from the Early Oligocene Mezhygorje Formation in the Ukriane, though studies of Insects from this amber suggest that it is Late Eocene in origin, contemporaneous with Baltic Amber.

In a paper published in the journal Arctoa on 26 December 2011, Michael Ignatov of the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Evgeny Perkovsky of the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, describe a series of Moss specimens from Rovno Amber. 

Ignatov and Perkovsky acknowledge that accurate identification of moss species is often impossible without their sporing bodies, and that recent genetic studies have suggested traditional classification schemes for Mosses are somewhat inaccurate, and that the classification assigned to the Rovno Amber specimens must therefore be treated with some caution. They also note that Mosses found as inclusions in amber were almost certainly growing on tree-trunks prior to their preservation, and that tree-trunk mosses are often somewhat smaller than members of the same species growing in other environments.

The first two specimens originate from the Pugach Quarry at Klesov, and are assigned to the extant species Hypnodontopsis mexicana, which is found in modern Mexico, but which is also common in Baltic Amber.

 

Specimens of Hypnodontopsis mexicana from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next specimen is assigned to the species Hypnodontopsis pilifer, which has only previously been described from Baltic Amber. This specimen also comes from the Pugach Quarry.

Specimen of Hypnodontospis pilifer from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next specimen is placed in a new species and given the name Neckerites pusillus; ‘Neckerites’ means ‘similar to Neckera’ (an extant genus of Mosses), but no explanation of ‘pusillus’ is given. It is presumed to be a member of the family Neckeraceae, which is widespread in temperate to sub-tropical climates today, but which has not been recorded from Baltic Amber.

Specimen of Neckerites pusillus from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next specimen is placed in the extant genus Palamocladium, and given the specific name fossile (fossil). Modern members of the genus Palamocladium are found throughout the tropics, and as far north as the southern US, southern Japan and the Caucasus Mountains. The genus has not been described from Baltic Amber, however there are undescribed specimens which appear quite similar.

Specimen of Palamocladium fossile from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next two specimens are assigned to the extent species Ctenidium capillifolium, which today is found in China, Japan and Korea, and which has also been recorded from Baltic Amber.

Specimens of Ctenidium capillifolium from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next specimen is assigned to the species Isopterygium minutirameum, which is found throughout the tropics today. This is the first known fossil assigned to the genus Isopterygium. 

Specimen of Isopterygium minutirameum from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next two specimens are placed in the genus Sematophyllites, and given the specific name subjulaceius, which is not explained. Other members of the genus Sematophyllites are known only from Baltic Amber.

Specimens of Sematophyllites subjulaceius from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

The next specimen is placed in the species Tristichella glabrescens, which is found in Japan and the Philippines today and which has been recorded from Baltic Amber.

Specimen of Tristichella glabrescens from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

Finally Ignatov and Perkovsky record a single specimen of an unknown Moss. This does not appear to be a member of any known species, but is poorly preserved so Ignatov and Perkovsky refrain from describing it as a new species.

Unknown Moss from Rovno Amber. Ignatov & Perkovsky (2011).

See also…

 A Non-biting Midge from Late Eocene Ukrainian amber.

Non-biting Midges (Chironomidae) are small Flies closely related to the Biting Midges, Solitary Midges and Blackflies. They closely resemble Mosquitoes, but despite their appearance and relationships...

 Fossil Legumes from the Oligocene of Guangxi Province, South China.

The Legumes are one of the most successful groups of modern plants, with over 19 000 described species; over 9% of all known Dicots are Legumes. The group owe their success largely to the presence of symbiotic nitrogen-fixing Bacteria in their roots, which...

 Two new species of Moss from the Permian of Brazil.

Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they are at their most diverse in moist habitats, though some species are surprisingly drought-tolerant. Despite...

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Two new species of Moss from the Permian of Brazil.

Mosses (Bryophytes) are simple plants which lack vascular systems to pump water and nutrients from a root system, instead relying on what they can absorb through their leaves, and generally only reaching a few cm in height. This means that they are at their most diverse in moist habitats, though some species are surprisingly drought-tolerant. Despite their simple nature, Mosses are an important part of ecosystems the world over, creating a water-holding layer which covers soil, rocks, trees and some animals, inside which entire miniature communities of organisms thrive. Mosses also differ from vascular plants in that they are haploid (have one set of chromosomes) rather than diploid (have paired chromosomes); though they have a diploid spore stage used to propagate the species in the same way that the (haploid) pollen of vascular plants is.

In a paper published in the journal Palaeontology in January 2012, Isabel Cortez Christiano de Souza and Fresia Ricardi Branco of the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources at the Institute of Geosciences at the State University of Campinas and Yelitza León Vargas of the Centro Jardín Botánico at the Facultad de Ciencias at the Universidad de Los Andes describe two new species of Moss from the Middle Permian Teresina Formation, found in the Rio Preto Quarry, in the state of Paraná in Brazil. Mosses from the Permian are not unexpected, since they are thought to be one of the oldest groups of plants to have colonized the land, possibly dating back as far as the Ordovician, but they are not well known from the former Gondwana Supercontinent (of which South America forms a part), despite the flora of the widespread Glossopteris forests of the time being well studied on several continents.

The location and geological setting of the Rio Preto Quarry. Christiano de Souza et al. (2012).

The first new species of Moss is named Capimirinus riopretensis, where Capimirinus is a Latinization of capim mirin, which means small delicate plant in the Tupi-Guarani language, and riopretensis derives from the Rio Preto Quarry. Capimirinus riopretensis grew up to 25 mm in length, with stems that narrow towards the tips, showing dichotomous branching (branching by splitting into two equal parts in a 'Y' shape, as opposed to growing side-branches from existing stems), with erect, spirally arranged leaves and a sporophyte (diploid reproductive structure) produced on a pleurocarp (short side branch).

Capimirinus riopretensis. Scale bar 5 mm in top left image, 1 mm in all other images. Christiano de Souza et al. (2012).

The second new species described is named Yguajemanus yucapirus, meaning the Old Moss of Death in Tupi-Guarani. This has branching stems of a constant thickness and strongly curved leaves aranged in symmetrical pairs. 

Yguajemanus yucapirus. Christiano de Souza et al. (2012).

See also A Permian forest preserved in volcanic ash, Russian scientists germinate Pleistocene seeds, Insect borings in Triasic wood, Did the first land plants cause an Ordovician glaciation? and The end of the Permian.

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Did the first land plants cause an Ordovician glaciation?

The Ordovician Period lasted roughly 44 million years, from approximately 488 million years ago to about 444 million years ago. It is thought to have been extremely warm, possibly the warmest geological period since the evolution of large, complex lifeforms, with a CO₂ rich atmosphere, average sea temperatures reaching 45 °C and most of the continents covered by shallow seas. However the end of the period was marked by a glaciation event, the Hirnantian Glaciation, which saw a drop in sea levels, glaciers across large chunks of Africa and South America, and the second most severe mass extinction event in the fossil record (after the End Permian). Scientists have struggled to explain this sudden climatic shift, since the Ordovician atmosphere appears to have been too rich in CO₂ for glaciers to develop (CO₂ is a powerful greenhouse gas so an atmosphere with a lot of it will be a warm one), and consequently some fairly silly explanations have been put forward.

Map showing the distribution of land-masses, and the extent of sea coverage on them, from the Middle Ordovician. From The Paleontology Portal.

This month, in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team led by Timothy Lenton of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter and the Earth and Life Systems Alliance at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, lay out a new theory in which they propose that the first land plants may have caused a drop in CO₂ levels, brining about the Hirnantian Glaciation and indirectly causing an extinction event in the oceans.

Lenton et al. note that the Ordovician was a time of considerable mountain building (orogeny) in the northeast of North America, and that along with mountain building comes the potential for mountain erosion. They also note that the period saw the spread of the first non-vascular land plants. Since mosses are associated with erosion of rocks in the modern world, Lenton et al. reasoned that this might also have been the case in the Ordovician.

To measure the extent to which modern mosses help erode rocks Lenton et al. set up an experiment in which samples of granite and andesite (rocks commonly associated with newly formed mountains) were cultured with micro-organisms known to aid erosion, and with or without macerated (chopped up) mosses. They found that the cultures with the moss were much better at releasing a range of nutrients into the culture medium than those without.

Two cultures from Lenton et al.'s study; granite chips with (left) and without (right) moss. From Lenton et al. (2012), Supplementary Material.

Lenton et al. accept that moss has had a long time to evolve since the Ordovician, but suggest that the ability to release nutrients from rocks would have been just as advantageous to Ordovician mosses as it is to modern ones. They suggest that these early mosses may have released large amounts of nutrients into the Ordovician oceans, causing vast algal blooms, and that these algal blooms may have in turn absorbed much of the CO₂ from the atmosphere, causing the climate to turn abruptly colder, and bringing about the End Ordovician Mass Extinction.

See also The end of the Permian and The End of the Cretaceous.