This is Mazon Monday post #206.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We are looking at another rare Mazon Creek plant fossil, Pseudomariopteris cordato-ovata, which is thought to have grown vine-like.  It belongs to the callistophytalean pteridosperms, a group of small, scrambling to climbing forms (Krings and Kerp, 2000).  Complete pinnae have been found and some of those had grasping hooks.  P. cordato-ovata was described in 1869 by Christian Ernst Weiss (1833-1890), who was a German geologist, paleontologist, mineralogist, and botanist.   He named it Neuropteris cordato-ovata.  The name was changed to Pseudomariopteris cordato-ovata by Leo Lesqeureux…

This is Mazon Monday post #205.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Cyathocarpus hemitelioides is one of the rarer ferns from the Mazon Creek biota.  C. hemitelioides was named in 1834 by Adolphe-Theodore Brongniart (1801 – 1876), who was a French paleontologist, considered by many to be the father of paleobotany. There are questions about whether it is even a valid name.  Pecopteris (Cyathocarpus) hemitelioides has at times been mistaken for Pecopteris (Cyathocarpus) arborescens (arborea), Crenulopteris subcrenulata, and Pecopteris (Diplazites) unita.  It should be noted that the Mazon Creek type specimens differ from Brongniart’s type example. C. hemitelioides appears on page 104 and…