Richard Leroy Pierce

Bio: Richard Leroy Pierce is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cretaceous. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 157 citations.

Approaches to the identification of angiosperm leaf remains

Abstract: During the past 125 years the history of early angiosperms, interpreted through the fossil leaf record has been largely an exercise in paleofloristic studies, ignoring evolution. Imprecise identifications of ancient leaves “matched” to extant genera and families have been used as the basis for reconstructions of paleocommunities and paleoclimates. However, as the result of careful morphological studies of leaf form, venation and cuticular features new insights into the evolution of angiosperms are now available. In this paper considerations are given to the usefulness and shortcomings of leaf form, venation and cuticular analysis as diagnostic tools of plant identification. Many techniques for the study of the morphology of modern and fossil leaves are included in this paper as well as tables outlining features of leaf venation and the epidermis. Careful morphological studies of leaf form (such as the venation and epidermal characters emphasized in this paper) will provide better understanding of the relationships of living angiosperms and transform the fossil leaf record into useful data that can be used to study the evolution of the angiosperms.

Early cretaceous fossil evidence for angiosperm evolution

Abstract: Morphological, stratigraphic, and sedimentological analyses of Early Cretaceous pollen and leaf sequences, especially from the Potomac Group of the eastern United States, support the concept of a Cretaceous adaptive radiation of the angiosperms and suggest pathways of their initial ecological and systematic diversification. The oldest acceptable records of angiosperms are rare monosulcate pollen grains with columellar exine structure from probable Barremian strata of England, equatorial Africa, and the Potomac Group, and small, simple, pinnately veined leaves with several orders of reticulate venation from the Neocomian of Siberia and the basal Potomac Group. The relatively low diversity and generalized character of these fossils and the subsequent coherent pattern of morphological diversification are consistent with a monophyletic origin of the angiosperms not long before the Barremian. PatuxentArundel floras (Barremian-early Albian?) of the Potomac Group include some pollen and leaves with monocotyledonous features as well as dicotyledonous forms. Patuxent angiosperm pollen is strictly monosulcate and has exine sculpture indicative of insect pollination. Rare Patuxent-Arundel angiosperm leaves are generally small, have disorganized venation, and are largely restricted to sandy stream margin lithofacies; the largest are comparable to and may include ancestors of woody Magnoliidae adapted to understory conditions. Patapsco floras (middle to late Albian?) contain rapidly diversifying tricolpate pollen and several new complexes of locally abundant angiosperm leaves. Ovate-cordate and peltate leaves in clayey pond lithofacies may includeancestors of aquatic Nymphaeales and Nelumbonales. Pinnatifid and later pinnately compound leaves with increasingly regular venation which are abundant just above rapid changes in sedimentation are interpreted as early successional “weed trees” transitional to but more primitive than the modern subclass Rosidae. Apparently related palmately lobed, palinactinodromous leaves which develop rigidly percurrent tertiary venation and become abundant in uppermost Potomac stream margin deposits (latest Albian-early Cenomanian?) are interpreted as riparian trees ancestral to the order Hamamelidales. Comparisons of dated pollen floras of other regions indicate that one major subgroup of angiosperms, tricolpate-producing dicots (i.e., excluding Magnoliidae of Takhtajan) originated in the Aptian of Africa-South America at a time of increasing aridity and migrated poleward into Laurasia and Australasia. However, the earlier (Barremian) monosulcate phase of the angiosperm record is represented equally in Africa-South America and Laurasia before marked climatic differentiation between the two areas. These trends are considered consistent with the hypothesis that the angiosperms originated as small-leafed shrubs of seasonally arid environments, and underwent secondary expansion of leaf area and radiated into consecutively later successional stages and aquatic habitats after entering mesic regions as riparian “weeds,” as opposed to the concept that they arose as trees of mesic forest environments.

Angiosperm pollen zonation of the continental Cretaceous of the Atlantic coastal plain and its application to deep wells in the Salisbury embayment

Abstract: This paper presents and illustrates an informal palynological zonation of the pre‐Magothy continental Cretaceous sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain (Potomac Group, Raritan Formation), based primarily on new and previously published studies of angiosperm pollen from two wells near Delaware City, Delaware, and from outcrop samples from Virginia through New Jersey, following lines established by Brenner (1963). Monosulcate angiosperm pollen (with columellar exine structure) is present from the base of Brenner's Zone I (Patuxent Formation and Arundel Clay equivalents, Barremian‐lower Albian?). Reticulate tricolpates enter in upper Zone I and diversify in Brenner's Subzones II‐A and II‐B (Patapsco Formation equivalents, middle‐upper Albian?); tricolporoidates appear in Subzone II‐B. Very small, psilate tricolporoidates and Rugubivesiculites rugosus enter in our Subzone II‐C (uppermost Albian?), larger triangular tricolporates and new tricolpates in Zone III (lower Cenomanian?); these two units ar...

Comparing palynological abundance and diversity; implications for biotic replacement during the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation

Abstract: The Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms initiated a major reorganization of terrestrial plant communities as dominance by pteridophytic and gymnospermic groups eventually gave way to dominance by angiosperms. Previously, patterns of biotic replacement have been assessed using measures based on taxonomic diversity data. However, using measures of both abundance and diversity to investigate replacement patterns provides more information about macroecological change in the fossil record than either can provide alone. Analyses of an updated and expanded database of North American palynological samples from Cretaceous sediments document a rapid increase in angiosperm diversity and abundance within individual fossil palynofloras (representing local/subregional vegetation). New analyses of floristic diversity patterns support previous results and indicate that the decline of free-sporing plants is more pronounced than the decline of gymnosperms. In contrast, analyses of abundance data appear to show that the decline of gymnosperms is far more pronounced than the decline of free-sporing plants. Detailed examination of both data sets segregated by paleolatitude shows that this apparent contradiction reflects biogeographical differences in the patterns of vegetational change (e.g., free-sporing plants declined in abundance at lower latitudes) as well as sampling bias (e.g., greater sampling in the northern region in the Late Cretaceous). Analyses accounting for these biases support the conclusion that as angiosperms radiated, free-sporing plants rather than gymnosperms (in this case, mainly conifers) experienced the most pronounced decline. A thorough understanding of the Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms will require both abundance and diversity data. It also will require expanding the analyses presented here into other geographic regions as well as sampling more completely at all spatial scales.