Banksieaeformis
genus of plants (fossil)
Banksieaeformis is a genus that encompasses plant species only known from fossil leaves that can be attributed to the Proteaceae tribe Banksieae, but cannot be attributed to an extant (living) genus. Unlike those classified in the related genus Banksieaephyllum, the leaves do not have their cuticular architecture preserved. The genus was defined by botanists Bob Hill and David Christophel in 1988 to distinguish banksia-like leaves that had been organically preserved from those that had not.
The two authors designated Banksieaeformis decurrens as the type species. Recovered from middle Eocene deposits at Maslin Bay in South Australia, it is known from a single leaf, 7 cm long and 1 cm wide. The leaf has entire margins in its basal half and pinnate lobes pointed apically in its apical half, which resembles the leaves of the fossil species Banksieaephyllum cuneatum and B. incisum, as well as the living species Banksia grandis, B. baxteri and B. drummondii. However, the overall shape of the leaf does not resemble any living species.
Banksieaeformis dentatus was described by Hill and Christophel from Late Eocene-Oligocene deposits from Cethana in northern Tasmania. These leaves are around 6 cm long and 1 cm wide, and have serrated margins, and resemble the living species Banksia serrata and B. burdettii. The venation is similar to the fossil species Banksieaephyllum attenuatum and B. fastigiatum, though these are a different shape.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Banksieaeformis” is genus of plants (fossil). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Banksieaeformis, genus and plants, not as a finished interpretation.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q16975045. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Banksieaeformis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.