The specimen of N. balticus is not the first fossil of this genus. Grolle (1988) assigned an inclusion in late Oligocene Bitterfeld amber ( Blumenstengel, 2004 and Standke, 2008) to the extant Notoscyphus lutescens (Lehmann et Lindenberg) Mitten sensu amplo. This fossil resembles the Eocene N. balticus in having small, rounded leaf papillae and reddish brown leaf cell lumina. It differs from N. balticus in having pale yellowish stems, leaf Ginkgolide B with a diameter of 27–34 μm and 7-μm-thick colourless rhizoids. The lack of comprehensive molecular data of Notoscyphus hampers a reconstruction of its crown group age and consideration of the assignment of this fossil to an extant species. Molecular data are also urgently needed to scrutinize the current classification of the genus, especially in light of the growing evidence for frequent cryptic or near-cryptic speciation in liverworts ( Ramaiya et al., 2010, Heinrichs et al., 2011, Renner et al., 2011 and Bakalin and Vilnet, 2014).
↧
