Vetiplanaxis pyrrhobryoides, a new fossil moss genus and species from Middle Cretaceous Burmese amber

A moss fossil in Burmese amber is described as a new genus and species, Vetiplanaxis pyrrhobryoides. Previously the specimen was misidentified as Hypnodendron, based partially on a misinterpretation of laminar areolation. The age of the Burmese amber is Middle Cretaceous, not Eocene as previously believed, making this one of the best preserved and potentially most informative moss fossils known from the Mesozoic. The specimen has morphological affinities to some Bryalean and proto-pleurocarpous groups, but cannot be securely placed in any extant family.