Malformations in Trilobites from the Silurian and Devonian of Europe.

Malformations in fossils, such as pathologies caused by infections, scars left by recovered injuries, or teratologies caused by developmental problems, can tell us a lot about how extinct organisms grew and interacted with their environments, although when analysing these is clearly preferable to have access to non-malformed examples of the same species, or at least a close relative.

Trilobites were a diverse and abundant group of Arthropods which appeared early in the Cambrian, and survived until the End Permian Extinction. Their dorsal exoskeleton was heavily biomineralized, and was shed periodically to allow the animals to grow. This has lead to an extensive fossil record with Trilobites being extremely common in many Palaeozoic marine deposits. This abundant fossil record makes Trilobites an excellent candidate group for the study of malformations.

In a paper published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica on 22 April 2025, Russell Bicknell of the Division of Paleontology (Invertebrates) at the American Museum of Natural History, and the Palaeoscience Research Centre at the University of New England, Patrick Smith of the Palaeontology Department at the Australian Museum Research Institute, and the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University, Lisa Amati of Paleontology at the New York State Museum, and Melanie Hopkins, also of the Division of Paleontology (Invertebrates) at the American Museum of Natural History, describe malformations in European Silurian and Devonian Trilobite specimens from the collections of the Natural History Museum in London and the New York State Museum.

The first specimen examined by Bicknell et al., NYSM 19739, is an isolated cephalon (head part) from a Harpetid Trilobite, Lioharpes venulosus, from the Early Devonian Koněprusy Limestone of the Czech Republic, in the collection of the New York State Museum. The cephalon is 26.2 mm long and 22.3 mm wide with a u-shaped indentation on its right marginal rim. This indentation is 5.6 mm long and extends 1.9 mm towards the midline. The marginal rim is covered in small circular pits, which around the indentation are irregular, ovate, and occasionally fused into larger pits.

Malformed Harpetid Trilobite Lioharpes venulosus, NYSM 19739 from the Koněprusy Limestone, Pragian, Lower Devonian, Koněprusy, Czech Republic. (A₁) complete cephalon; (A₂) close up showing U-shaped indentation (arrow). Specimen coated in ammonium chloride sublimate. Bicknell et al. (2025).

Bicknell et al. note that malformations to the cephalic fringes of Harpetid Trilobites have been recorded before, and that these are usealy attributed to injuries, an analysis with which they concur. However, they also observe that injuries can happen in a variety of ways, with fringe injuries having previously attributed to problems during moulting, failed predation attempts, or unknown causes. They suggest that a moulting injury is the most likely explanation for the injury to the Koněprusy specimen, with the delicate fringe likely torn during moulting, and the enlarged and fused pits being a result of fusion of the torn margin during healing. Various purposes have been suggested for the cephalic fringes of Harpetid Trilobites, including filtering for food, sensory roles, sediment ploughing, hydrostatic support, cephalic reinforcement, burrowing, and enhancing hydrodynamic efficiency. Whatever the purpose of this organ, an injury to it is likely to have been detrimental to the living Trilobite, and presumably repairing this injury would have been a priority during subsequent moults.

The second specimen, NHMUK PI In 65061, looked at is a Phacopid Trilobite, Calymene blumenbachii, from the Early Silurian Much Wenlock Limestone Formation of Shropshire, England, in the collection of the Natural History Museum. This specimen comprises a partial cephalon, thorax, and pygidium, with a total length of 92.9 mm and a width of 48.6 mm. The second thoracic axial ring (middle part of the second segment of the thorax) of this specimen is covered by a structure with closely spaced openings, which has an elevated round crater at its right extremity, with an opening 1.7 mm across.

Bicknell et al. interpret this as an encrusting Trepostome Bryozoan covering the 3rd thoracic tergite, with the larger opening being an ovate zoarium (specially modified zooid which produced eggs). The restriction of the encrustation to one tergite strongly suggests that this happened while the Trilobite was alive, and that the Bryozoan colony was therefore unable to overgrow the articulations between tergites.

Abnormal Calymenid Trilobites Calymene blumenbachii from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation, Homerian, Wenlock, Silurian, England, UK. (A) NHMUK PI In 65061, (A₁) complete specimen; (A₂) close up showing the large bryozoan growth. (B) NHMUK PI In 19857 showing pygidial ribs that terminate early (white arrows) and are fused proximal to the medial lobe (black arrow).  Bicknell et al. (2025).

The next specimen examined, NHMUK PI In 19857, is another example of Calymene blumenbachii from the Much Wenlock Limestone. This specimen is a partial pygidium (tail part) 13.2 mm long and 18.2 mm wide. On the right side of this specimen the pygidial ribs are disrupted and irregular, with two ribs terminating 1.6 mm short of the pygidial margin, while another two fuse 1.2 mm from the pygidial axis.

Bicknel et al. observe that similar deformations to the pygidia have been observed in a wide range of other Trilobites, including Dalmanities pleuroptyx, Dechenella macrocephalus, Niobina sp., and Prionopeltis archiaci. They attribute these deformations to genetic or developmental issues, but suggest that the limited disruption to the pygidium they caused did not represent a major handicap.

Specimen NYSM 19740 is an Acastid Trilobite, Treveropyge sp., from the early Devonian Saint Céneré Formation of Mayenne in northwest France. this specimen is another isolated pygidium, s 11.6 mm long and 17.9 mm wide. It has a deformation to the axial lobe, which is asymmetric, with two of the axial rings malformed and curving to the right.

Malformed Acastid Trilobite Treveropyge sp., NYSM 19740 from the Saint Céneré Formation, Lochkovian, Lower Devonian, Mayenne, France. (A₁) Complete pygidium; (A₂) close up showing asymmetrical axial lobe and incomplete axial ring (arrows). Specimen coated in ammonium chloride sublimate. Bicknell et al. (2025).

Again, Bicknell et al. note that similar deformations have been seen in other Trilobites, such as Calliops marginatus, Dolicholeptus licticallis, and Sceptaspis lincolnensis. They suggest that these malformations are caused by genetic deformations, leading to incomplete development or non-functional somites.

The final specimen examined, NHMUK PI I 1108, is an external impression of a partial pygidium belonging to the Styginid Trilobite Scutellum (Scutellum) pardalios, from the Middle Devonin Barton Limestone Member of Devon, England. This impression is t is 59.5 mm long and 44.0 mm wide. On the right side of this impression (i.e. on the left side of the Trilobite) two ribs fuse into a single rib 29.1 mm from the pygidial axis. This single rib then terminates 4.8 mm from the pygidial margin.

Malformed Styginid Trilobite Scutellum (Scutellum) pardalios, NHMUK PI I 1108 from the Barton Limestone Member, Torquay Limestone Formation, Givetian, Middle Devonian, England, UK. (A₁) Pygidium preserved as external impression; (A₂) close up showing fused pygidial pleurae (arrows). Bicknell et al. (2025).

Bicknell et al. note that the surface of the pygidium was covered with ornamentation, with no visible break in this, which appears to  rule out the malformation having been formed by an unsuccessful predation attempt, or similar injury. Recovery from injury is the most commonly sited reason for malformations seen in Styginid Trilobites, followed by parasitic infections during early development, which seems equally unlikely. Bicknell et al. suggest instead that this deformity might be the result of a difficult moult, or possibly a genetic aberration. They do not believe this minor deformity would have significantly affected the living Trilobite.

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The beads of Mozambique Island.

Mozambique Island, on the northern coast of the African country of the same name, was the first place where Portuguese explorers, having rounded the Cape of Good Hope, encountered the trade networks of the Indian Ocean. At this time the island was ruled by a Muslim sheikh, with merchants using the island as a base from which to trade with the African interior or wider Indian Ocean needing his permission to do so, with all such merchants needing to be Muslims themselves. The island was quickly brought under Portuguese rule, with a Captain appointed to rule the island on behalf of the Portuguese Crown, and became a crucial stopover on the journey between Lisbon and Goa. While the Portuguese Captain in theory had control over all commerce occurring in the port, in practice many commodities were not regulated, and the island gained as a reputation as place where fortunes could be made with little interference from the Portuguese authorities.

During the Early Modern Era, beads were extensively used by European traders as a means of currency, being both a portable, high value item, and a desirable commodity which they could control the supply of. This certainly appears to have been the case on Mozambique Island, where large numbers of beads, many of them apparently derived from shipwrecks off the coast of the island, are today collected from the island's sandy beaches and made into necklaces, which are then sold to tourists.

In a paper published in the journal World Archaeology on 22 November 2024, Tânia Manuel Casimiro of História, Territórios e Comunidades at Nova University Lisbon, Yolanda Duarte of Archaeology at Eduardo Mondlane University, and Jéssica Iglésias, also of História, Territórios e Comunidades at Nova University Lisbon, present the results of an analysis of the origin of beads from Mozambique Island, and the implications of this for the history of the island.

Today, beads are collected by shovelling sand from the beaches into 25-50 kg bags and taking these to a flat, clean surface, where the sand can be sifted through for beads. No permit is needed for this activity, and no attention paid to the archaeological context of the beads by the collectors. However, some of the necklaces made by the bead-gatherers have been obtained by local people with an interest in the island's heritage, and it is from such collections that Casmiro et al. gained the beads used in their study.

Process for recovering the beads. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Casmiro et al. examined a sample of 12 166 beads, recording the material they were made from, as well as their style. Many of the glass beads were apparently Venetian, with Venice being a major manufacturing centre for beads used as colonial trade goods from the sixteenth century onwards, although Casmiro et al. note that many 'Venetian' beads were in fact made in other European cities in imitation of the Venetian style. However, such beads are clearly of European origin, easily distinguished from Indian beads (also very common around the Indian Ocean) which tend to be carved from a mineral such as carnelian or agate. Because of the way in which the beads were obtained, it was not possible to date them by context, although it was possible to build up a limited chronology for beads from the sixteenth to nineteenth century, with a few beads coming from outside this period.

Strings of beads sold to tourists on Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

The majority of the beads (10 626) were made of glass. Most of these were of a single colour, with examples of white, black, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red beads being found, along with some which combine a several colours. These glass beads also vary greatly in shape, with tubular, oblate, cylindrical, ellipsoidal, spherical, bicone, and barrel-shaped beads all present. After glass beads, the most common were stone beads,  followed by coral, shell, bone, ivory, and plastic.

A 'Venetian' glass chevron bead transformed into a pendant. Casmiro et al. (2024).

The most common glass beads (7789 examples) are seed beads, small spherical beads at most a few millimetres across, which have been manufactured in Europe since at least the fifteenth century. Another common type are Green Heart Beads (540 examples), cylindrical glass beads made up of layers of different glass, with the innermost being green, giving a shimmering, multi-hued effect, which were produced in Venice between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

(Top) Glass Heart Beads. (Bottom) Seed beads. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Hudson's Bay Beads (235 examples), sometimes also known as White Heart Beads, or Cornaline d’Aleppo, were made in Venice between 1830 and the early 1900s. These again were cylindrical beads with multiple layers, this time having an inner layer of white or yellow glass.

Hudson's Bay Beads. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Chevron beads (11 examples) were elongate beads made by building up multiple layers of glass onto a central star-shaped moulded cane. These beads were invented in the late fifteenth century by craftswoman Marietta Barovier of Murano, and made at a number of glassworks in Murano and Venice, and probably elsewhere, although it is not generally possible to tell where an individual bead was made.

Chevron beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

A-Speo beads (186 examples) were made by drawing out a thick glass straw, which was then chopped into short segments. These segments were then placed on a metal rod, and placed in a furnace to melt them into a rounded shape (the name 'a-speo' derives from the Italian phrase for 'to skewer'). This technique was probably invented in Venice or Murano, but was practiced in many areas of Europe. 

A-speo beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Skunk beads (14 examples), were made in Venice (and probably other European bead-making centres) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by adding small globules of glass to an a larger glass bead of a different colour, to give a speckled effect. These were most commonly black with added white speckles, hence the name 'skunk beads', but other colour patterns were also produced. 

Skunk beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Tubular beads (12 examples) were first made in Venice in the fifteenth century, but due to their ease of manufacture, continued to be made at centres across Europe for the next six centuries. Padre, or Pekin Glass, beads were made in Venetian and Czech workshops in the nineteenth century, in imitation of blue glass beads from China, themselves made as a cheaper substitute for jade beads.

(Top) Tubular beads and (bottom) Pekin Glass beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Millefiori beads are glass with complicated floral patterns, made since Roman times. They are manufactured by producing glass canes with a flower-shaped cross-section, which are then cut into thin slices, which are in turn incorporated within blown glass products, including beads. The name millefiori derives from the Italian for 'thousand flowers'.

Millefiori beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Eye beads (2 examples), which superficially resemble eyes, have been made around the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, and South Asia for thousands of years, often as a charm against the Evil Eye. The earliest forms were made of clay, but the manufacture of glass eye beads can be traced back to about 1500 BC.

'King' or 'Golo' beads (2 examples) were made in Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a high value trade item for African markets. There were large, striped, biconed beads which came in a range of colours, though green beads with yellow, black, and red stripes were the most common.

Dog Teeth, or ruffled beads (two examples) were made in Venice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mostly for trade with Nigeria. These are black beads with an irregular shape, and a 'ruffle' of white marks (or 'teeth') around their centre.

A single Nueva Cadiz bead was found on Mozambique Island. These were squared, tubular beads in a distinctive blue colour, made originally in Venice for trade with the Americas, but which were subsequently made in a number of other European cities. These beads are very common at sites on the Atlantic coast of Africa, but surprisingly rare at sites on the Indian Ocean.

The single Nueva Cadiz bead found on Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Bohemian beads (1147 examples) were made in the modern Czech Republic, where they developed a range of distinct techniques of their own, notably pressed glass. These beads often have vertical and horizontal lines, circular incisions, coloured bands, phytomorphic and zoomorphic decorations.

Bohemian beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Russian blue beads (183 examples) were a distinctive type of Bohemian bead produced in the eighteenth centuries. These beads were multifaceted with six, seven, or eight sides, and typically a transparent blue, although amber, green, and clear examples are also known.

Russian blue beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Vaseline beads (1 example), sometimes also called uranium beads because of the uranium used to tint the glass green, were large faceted of shaped beads made in Bohemia in the late  nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Haj beads (5 examples) were made in Bohemian the early twentieth century for export to the city of Mecca, where they were sold to pilgrims, often becoming heirloom objects within their families. Two of the examples found on Mozambique Island had moon-and-star symbols, while the remaining three had the name of the Prophet Mohammed written upon them.

Dutch opalescent beads (9 examples), sometimes known as moon beads, were glass beads made to resemble pearls by adding ash to the glass, made in the Netherlands, Bohemia, Germany, and Venice, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Dogon beads (187 examples) are large, chunky beads with a rough texture, which were produced in Amsterdam and possibly Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, principally for trade with the Dogon people of southern Mali, but were also traded to other areas of Africa.

Dogon beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Prosser beads (9 examples), sometimes known as Kakamba Prosser Beads after a town in what is now the Republic of Congo where they were popular. These were made in the nineteenth century by a French craftsman called Jean-Félix Bapterosses, who modified a technique developed by the Prosser Brothers of London to cold-press glass and porcelain buttons, instead producing disk-shaped opalescent beads.

While the majority of the examined beads were glass, stone beads were also common, with 996 in the collection. The most abundant stone types are jet and carnelian, with agate and garnet beads also quite common. Stone beads have been manufactured around the world, which can make it difficult to determine the origin of individual beads, although most stone beads found around the Indian Ocean originate from India or Southeast Asia. This potentially makes these beads the oldest on Mozambique Island, with some examples likely to have reached the island before the first Europeans.

Stone beads from Mozambique Island. Casmiro et al. (2024).

Three beads from Mozambique Island were identified as being of Chinese origin, although details of these are not given. China began to export large volumes of beads in the early twentieth century, something it does to this day, and has produced beads from porcelain, wood, cinnabar, cloisonné, enamelled metal, stones, and glass, among other materials.

Filigree is a form of intricate metalwork consisting of tiny beads and twisted threads soldered together, made in the Islamic world largely between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Fifty five silver elements from Mozambique Island are probably derived from filigree jewellery, most likely originating from Mauritania.

Beads derived from Animal materials such as shell, bone, ivory, and coral were also quite common (469 examples), although it is difficult to assess where these came from, as these materials are available, and have been worked, across much of the globe.

Plastic beads (8 examples) are clearly of twentieth century origin, since the first plastic (Bakalite) was invented by the Belgian-American chemist Leo Hendrick Baekelandin 1909. Plastic beads are cheap and easy to manufacture, and are produced in many countries. The low number of these on Mozambique Island suggests that they may never have been a commercial import, but may have been brought to the island by people wearing them, or possibly even have floated there on ocean currents.

Finally, five items were found in the collection that probably did not start out as beads, but which had been repurposed as such. These were a black glass button or pendant, two jet buttons, a rectangular piece of jet with three diagonal incisions of unknown origin, and what appeared to be the bottom half of a Frozen Charlotte doll (a type of rigid doll, typically made out of china, made between about 1850 and about 1920, mostly in Germany for the US market).

Casmiro et al.'s study revealed the presence of a wide range of beads, made from a variety of substances, on Mozambique Island. Despite this variety, about 90% of the beads were glass, and of European origin. Glass trade beads have been considered to be powerful symbols of European colonial influence, which seems to be particularly relevant on Mozambique Island, a vital trade hub within the Portuguese Empire. The beads of the same designs as those found on Mozambique Island have been found at other sites around the world, although overwhelmingly in colonial contexts.

Glass beads were, of course, made before the fifteenth century, and it can sometimes be hard to differentiate these from later beads, but none of the glass beads found on Mozambique Island appear likely to be this old. The stone, and animal-derived, beads found on the island may date to before the arrival of Europeans in the area, although such beads continue to be made until the present day, making it hard to be certain of their age. Mozambique Island is known to have been a trading hub before the arrival of the Portuguese, but it appears to have become much more important once integrated into the global Portuguese network.

Curiously, the high abundance of European beads on Mozambique Island is in contrast to the situation in South Africa, where European beads are unusual at archaeological sites, but beads from India quite common. It has been suggested that this South African preference for Indian beads may have been established before the arrival of European traders, and that with South African customers unwilling to switch, European traders may instead have imported beads from India to cater for this market.

Casmiro et al. also note that the beads once brought to Africa by Europeans to trade for commodities such as slaves, ivory, and gold, have now taken on a new role in places such as Mozambique Island, being traded back to European tourists as a means of gaining hard currency, a much needed twenty first century trade commodity.

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A La Tène period glassworks from central Moravia; the oldest glassworks in Europe north of the Alps.

The Amber Road was an ancient trade route connecting the Baltic to northen Italy via what is now Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. The Němčice archaeological site, discovered in 2002, lies on this route between the ancient settlements of Roseldorf in Lower Austria and Nowa Cerekwia in Lower Silesia. Surface surveys at the site have yielded more than 2000 Celtic coins, as well as glass bracelets and beads, and bronze artefacts, including amulets and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines associated with the La Tène culture (a widespread Celtic culture which appeared in Gaul around 500 BC and spread across northern Europe as far as England, Slovakia, central Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, and Ukraine. Subsequent excavations have discovered several sunken huts connected by corridors, three square features interpreted as sanctuaries, and site for the production of tools and materials.

In a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 29 June 2023, Ivan Čižmář of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage Brno, and Jana Čižmárová of the Moravian Museum, provide a description of the Central Agglomeration Nĕmčice nad Hanou: Interdisciplinary Research of a Key Site of the La Tène Period in Moravia Project, which aims to achieve a better understanding of this site, and its importance within Central Europe in the second and third centuries BC.

(A) Location of Nĕmčice in the Central Danube region; (B) aerial view of the site from the south-east. Ivan Čižmář in Čižmář & Čižmárová (2023).

Excavations at the Nĕmčice site in 2021 and 2022 appear to have progressed as far as is likely to be possible using non-destructive techniques, and future work should concentrate on analysis of the material collected.

The most important find at Nĕmčice is the glass workshop, the oldest known such site in Europe north of the Alps; the La Tène people were known for their glass working skills, but this is the first time that a La Tène glass workshop has been found this far north. The initial surface surveys suggested that there might be a glass workshop in the northern part of the Nĕmčice site, where numerous apparently rejected glass beads and part-finished glass items were found within an area about 40 m in diameter. This unusual concentration of this material had led archaeologists to suspect that glass was being manufactured at Nĕmčice, but until now direct evidence had been missing.

Evidence of glass production and secondary processing from Nĕmčice. Ivan Čižmář in Čižmář & Čižmárová (2023).

By targeting excavations on the centre of this area, and carrying out non-destructive analysis of glass items from the site, it has been possible to locate the site of the workshop, determine the methods being used, and compare the glass to other La Tène glassware from across Europe.

Two of the sunken hut structures at the site were investigated, yielding a number of La Tène ceramic items interpretted as coming from stage LT C2; a morphometric and qualitative analysis of these items should enable comparison to ceramics from Staré Hradisko, a La Tène site in Moravia which has produced LT C2-D1 ceramics dating from roughly 150-50 BC, enabling a better understanding of ceramic development over this time, and the establishment of a better ceramics based dating system for the La Tène culture, which could be applied to other sites. 

Aerial photograph of the excavation in 2021, with sunken hut. Ivan Čižmář in Čižmář & Čižmárová (2023).

The gathering and study of environmental samples, such as bone, plant fragments, charcoal, and pollen, should also allow comparison to other La Tène sites in Moravia, with the aim of building up a dataset for La Tène sites in the region,

Further study of the site intends not just to understand the site as part of a broader European La Tène culture, but also as a space used by the people who lived there. The three large square structures found within the site were clearly important to these people. Similar large square enclosures have also been found at Roseldorf in Lower Austria, where they have been interpreted as being ritual spaces. If this interpretation if correct, then the Nĕmčice site was not just a centre of trade and manufacturing, but also a seat of power and ritual centre.

Aerial photograph of uncovered sanctuary. Ivan Čižmář in Čižmář & Čižmárová (2023).

Čižmář and Čižmárová envisage the Nĕmčice site as having been part of a well-organized trade network along the Amber Road. The existence of such a network shows that this part of Europe was undergoing somewhat of an economic boom during this period, probably driven at least in part by increasing contact with the prosperous states of the Mediterranean Basin, but also by indigenous Central European advances.

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Covidifructus multicarpellatus: A multicarpellate fruit from the Late Cretaceous of South Bohemia.

The earliest Flowering Plants are thought likely to have produced flowers with several carpels (ovule-bearing female reproductive organs) free from each other, a state still seen in Plants such as Lotuses and Roses. However, most modern Flowering Plants have flowers with several fused carpels, typically three in Monocotylodons and two to five in Eudicotids. This is thought to have been a key adaptation in Flowering Plants, allowing more efficient pollination and seed/fruit dispersal, which arose multiple times in different lineages early in the history of the Flowering Plants. Although most modern (and fossil) Flowering Plants have fused carpels, plants with more than five carpels in a single whorl are rare, despite having evolved numerous times in different Plant groups, suggesting the advantages of such an arrangement are limited. Today this condition can be seen in some Water Lilies, Water Plantains, Poppies, and several other lineages. Examples are known in the fossil record as well, including Monetianthus mirus, a Water Lily from the Early Cretaceous of Portugal, Carpestella lacunata, probably a member of an extinct group closely related to Water Lilies, from the Early Cretaceous of North America, and Elsemaria kokubunii, probably a member of the Dilleniaceae, a group of woody shrubs with a largely tropical distribution, from the Late Cretaceous of Japan.

In a paper published in the journal Palaeontologica Electronica on 14 January 2022, Zuzana Heřmanová of the National Museum in Prague, Jana Čepičková of the Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at Charles University, Jiří Kvaček, also of the National Museum in Prague, and Maria von Balthazar and Jürg Schönenberger of the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at the University of Vienna, describe a new multicarpellate fruit from the Late Cretaceous of South Bohemia.

The specimen comes from the Klikov Formation (Late Turonian–Santonian) at the Zliv-Řídká Blana Quarry, a typical Laurasian Late Cretaceous site which has produced fossils of Plant reproductive organs, leaves, and wood belonging to the Normapolles (an extinct group related to Oaks and Beeches), Proteales (Proteas), Laurales (Laurels), Ericales (Heathers), as well as Insects and the coprolites of larger Animals. It is a charcoalified and 3-dimensionally preserved specimen representing a 10-carpellate syncarpous gynoecium.

The new species is named Covidifructus multicarpellatus, where 'Covidifructus' refers to the Covid-19 pandemic, which provided the authors with the time to work on the project, and 'multicarpellatus' refers to the multicarpellate nature of the specimen. The specimen has 10 carpels in radial symmetry, each of which has a single locule (cavity) holding a large oblong ovule or seed. Lines of dehiscence (i.e. lines along which the body would be expected to split open) are located on the median-dorsal side of each carpel.

 

Covidifructus multicarpellatus; specimen No. NMP F3200; scale bars equal 100 μm in all figures. (A) Small premature capsular fruit in lateral view, semi-globose in overall shape; SEM. (B) Fruit seen in apical view; note preformed dorsal lines of fruit dehiscence; SEM. (C) Close-up of fruit apex showing styles and stigmatic areas (asterisks); note irregular closure of ovary in the very centre; SEM. (D) MicroCT volume rendering, lateral view, showing 10 elongate seeds (green), one seed per carpel. (E) MicroCT volume rendering, apical view, showing regular arrangement of carpels and seeds. (F) Detail of central ovary closure (dashed line); note that some of the carpel flanks (arrowheads) do not extend to the very centre of the closure zone; SEM. Heřmanová et al. (2022).

Heřmanová et al. compared Covidifructus multicarpellatus to a range of extant and fossil multicarpellate fruit-bearing Plants. It does not appear to be closely related to either Monetianthus mirus or Carpestella lacunata. It does appear to resemble illustrations of Elsemaria kokubunii somewhat, although Heřmanová et al. disagree with the original description of this fossil, a single permineralized fruit from the Late Cretaceous of Japan, given by Harufumi Nishida in 1994. If Heřmanová et al.'s interpretation of that fossil is correct, then Covidifructus multicarpellatus and Elsemaria kokubuniii are likely to be related, and both to be members of the Dilleniaceae, but re-examination of the original material of Elsemaria kokubuniii would be needed before this can be confirmed.

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