A fossil plant, Yanliaoia sinensis gen. et sp. nov. of late Jurassic is described from
western Liaoning. It is an arborescent conifer, deciduous, with branchlets and leaves
resemble closely those of Sequoia sempervirens.. The form and structure of female
cones and cone scales are similar to those of extinct genus Elatides and living genera
Cunninghamia, Taiwania and Athrotaxis, The female cone, however, is smaller. Cone
scales are spirally arranged, woody, thin and ellipticzl, having a short spine at their
apex. Seeds, globuloidal, without wings, about ten on each scale, and longitudinally
arranged in three to four ranks, which occupy nearly the whole area of the ventral
surface of ovuliferous scales.
The author believes that Yanliaoa and Elatides are two closely allied genera,
evolved roughly in parallel with each other in the late Mesozoic. Yanliaoa may be
one of the ancestors of the living genera of Taxodiaceae. remarkablly the lineal or
sublineal ascendant of Sequoia sempervirens. The so-called “Sequoid jeholensis”
(Endos. 1951) may be a branchlet of Yanliaoa sinensis.
