Pityostrobus Pubescens, a New Species of Pinaceous Cones From the Late Cretaceous of New Jersey

This new species is based on a single semifusinized cone from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of New Jersey. The cone is flattened but essentially complete. It is 55 mm long and 8 by 13 mm in diam. Scale apices are thin, rounded, and entire, lacking evidence of an umbo or spine. The vascular cylinder of the cone axis is organized as a series of separate strands. The scale is made up of a basal portion that stands out nearly perpendicular to the cone axis and a sharply upturned distal portion. The bract base has a pronounced abaxial keel. Bract and scale traces diverge from the vascular cylinder of the cone axis separately from one another. A poorly developed interseminal ridge is present at the chalazal end of the seeds. An unusual feature of the cone is the presence of a trichome‐bearing epidermis on the cone axis, bract‐scale complex, and near the scale apex. Resin canals diverge into the bract‐scale complex abaxial to the scale trace with branches becoming adaxial to the scale trace outward. A number of features of the new species occur in cones of Abies, Cedrus, Keteleeria, Larix, Picea, Pseudolarix, Pseudotsuga , and Tsuga as well as in the extinct genus Pseudoaraucaria . Features of Pinus are absent. This suggests that Pseudoaraucaria may have served as an ancestral source for modern genera other than Pinus with Pityostrobus pubescens representing an evolutionary intermediate.