TIDWELL, WILLIAM D.1*, LEITH S. TIDWELL2, WALT WRIGHT3, and ULRICH DERNBACH4. 1Department of Botany and Range Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602; 2Department of Forest Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84321; 3Brea, CA 92821; 4Schlenhenweg 2, D-64646 Heppenheim, Germany. - Tempskya sp. from Neuquén, Argentina, the first Tempskya species reported from the Southern Hemisphere.
Permineralized axes of a new species of Tempskya is described
from the Cretaceous Grupo Neuquén from northeast of Zapala, Neuquén,
Argentina. The species is characterized by having only inner and outer
cortices that are parenchymatous. Species of Tempskya from the
Northern Hemisphere, except for T. reesidei reported from New
Mexico, have three layered cortices with the outer cortex being
parenchymatous, the middle sclerenchymatous, and inner either
sclerenchymatous or parenchymatous or both. In T. reesidei, the
inner cortex is sclerenchymatous. Tempskya specimens, first
described by Stokes and Webb (1824) under the name Endogenites
erosa, have been previously reported from numerous localities in
the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, this report of Tempskya
from Argentina and, thereby the first from the Southern Hemisphere, is
both very interesting and highly significant.
Key words: Argentina, Creataceous, Neuquén, Tempskya