Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: We report compressed fossil mats of leafy liverwort (Jungermanniidae) gametophytes from the early Eocene Tufolitas Laguna del Hunco, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, dated to ∼52.2 Ma. The fossils are preserved in tuffaceous lacustrine density-flow deposits previously interpreted as turbidites derived from slope failures along the caldera margin. We describe a new genus and species, Camptochila eternautae gen. et sp. nov., and compare its morphology with living and fossil leafy liverworts. The combination of succubous, 2-ranked, entire lateral leaves with a revolute margin and leptodermous leaf cells without trigones or papillae, monomorphic shoots with pseudodichotomous branching, and absent or vestigial underleaves does not correspond to any known living genus or previously described fossil. Vegetative characters shared with Adelanthaceae, Lophocoleaceae, and Plagiochilaceae preclude unambiguous family assignment based on currently available material. Camptochila eternautae provides the first unequivocal macrofossil evidence of leafy liverworts from South America, extending the Eocene record of Jungermanniidae in the southern hemisphere and demonstrating that lacustrine density-flow deposits are promising targets for future discovery of bryophyte compression fossils.
Source: The Bryologist
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: National Science Foundation
Awards: Collaborative Research: Origins of Southeast Asian Rainforests from Paleobotany and Machine Learning, Collaborative Research: Origins of Southeast Asian Rainforests from Paleobotany and Machine Learning, Collaborative Research: Patagonian Fossil Floras, the Keys to the Origins, Biogeography, Biodiversity, and Survival of the Gondwanan Rainforest Biome, Collaborative Research: Patagonian Fossil Floras, the Keys to the Origins, Biogeography, Biodiversity, and Survival of the Gondwanan Rainforest Biome
OpenAlex ID: W7212078189