Ginkgoales are a gymnosperm order containing only one extant species: Ginkgo biloba, the ginkgo tree. The order has a long fossil record extending back to the Early Permian around 300 million years ago from fossils found worldwide. The order was a common component of Permian and Triassic flora before the super dominance of conifers.
Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed plants known as Glossopteridales. The name Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within the framework of form genera used in paleobotany.
Pteridospermatophyta, also called "pteridosperms" or "seed ferns" are a polyphyletic grouping of extinct seed-producing plants. The earliest fossil evidence for plants of this type are the lyginopterids of late Devonian age. They flourished particularly during the Carboniferous and Permian periods. Pteridosperms declined during the Mesozoic Era and had mostly disappeared by the end of the Cretaceous Period, though Komlopteris seem to have survived into Eocene times, based on fossil finds in Tasmania.
Bennettitales is an extinct order of seed plants that first appeared in the Permian period and became extinct in most areas toward the end of the Cretaceous. Bennettitales were amongst the most common seed plants of the Mesozoic, and had morphologies including shrub and cycad-like forms. The foliage of bennettitaleans is superficially nearly indistinguishable from that of cycads, but they are distinguished from cycads by their more complex flower-like reproductive organs, at least some of which were likely pollinated by insects.
Dioon is a genus of cycads in the family Zamiaceae. It is native to Mexico and Central America. Their habitats include tropical forests, pine-oak forest, and dry hillsides, canyons and coastal dunes.
Coal forests were the vast swathes of freshwater swamp and riparian forests that covered much of the lands on Earth's tropical regions during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian periods. As plant matter from these wetland forests decayed, enormous deposits of peat accumulated, which later became buried and converted into coal over the subsequent geologic eras.
Gigantopterids (Gigantopteridales) is an extinct, possibly polyphyletic group of seed plants known from the Permian period. Gigantopterids were among the most advanced land plants of the Paleozoic Era and disappeared around the Permian–Triassic extinction event around 252 million years ago. Though some lineages of these plants managed to persist initially, they either disappeared entirely or adapted radically, evolving into undetermined descendants, as surviving life prospered again in much-altered ecosystems. One hypothesis proposes that at least some "gigantopterids" became the ancestors of angiosperms and/or Bennettitales and/or Caytoniales.
Sagenopteris is a genus of extinct seed ferns from the Triassic to late Early Cretaceous.
The Medullosales is an extinct order of pteridospermous seed plants characterised by large ovules with circular cross-section and a vascularised nucellus, complex pollen-organs, stems and rachides with a dissected stele, and frond-like leaves. Their nearest still-living relatives are the cycads.
The Lyginopteridales are an extinct group of seed plants known from the Paleozoic. They were the first plant fossils to be described as pteridosperms and, thus, the group on which the concept of pteridosperms was first developed; they are the stratigraphically oldest-known pteridosperms, occurring first in late Devonian strata; and they have the most primitive features, most notably in the structure of their ovules. They probably evolved from a group of Late Devonian progymnosperms known as the Aneurophytales, which had large, compound frond-like leaves. The Lyginopteridales became the most abundant group of pteridosperms during Mississippian times, and included both trees and smaller plants. During early and most of middle Pennsylvanian times the Medullosales took over as the more important of the larger pteridosperms but the Lyginopteridales continued to flourish as climbing (lianescent) and scrambling plants. However, later in Middle Pennsylvanian times the Lyginopteridales went into serious decline, probably being out-competed by the Callistophytales that occupied similar ecological niches but had more sophisticated reproductive strategies. A few species continued into Late Pennsylvanian times, and in Cathaysia and east equatorial Gondwana they persisted into the Late Permian, but subsequently became extinct. Most evidence of the Lyginopteridales suggests that they grew in tropical latitudes of the time, in North America, Europe and China.
Callistophytales is an extinct order of spermatophytes which lived from the Pennsylvanian to Permian periods. They were mainly scrambling and lianescent (vine-like) plants found in the wetland "coal swamps" of Euramerica and Cathaysia. Like many other early spermatophytes, they could be described as "seed ferns", combining ovule-based reproduction with pinnate leaves superficially similar to modern ferns.
The Callistophytaceae was a family of seed ferns (pteridosperms) from the Carboniferous and Permian periods. They first appeared in late Middle Pennsylvanian (Moscovian) times, 306.5–311.7 million years ago (Ma) in the tropical coal forests of Euramerica, and became an important component of Late Pennsylvanian vegetation of clastic soils and some peat soils. The best known callistophyte was documented from Late Pennsylvanian coal ball petrifactions in North America.
Lepidopteris is a form genus for leaves of Peltaspermaceae, an extinct family of seed plants, which lived from around 260 to 190 million years ago, from the Late Permian to Early Jurassic. Fossils of the genus have been found across both hemispheres. Nine species are currently recognized.Lepidopteris was a common and widespread seed fern, which survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event but was largely wiped out by the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris callipteroides is especially common between the first two episodes of the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and L. ottonis forms a comparable acme zone immediately before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris would persist into the Early Jurassic in Patagonia, represented by the species Lepidopteris scassoi.
Macroneuropteris is a genus of Carboniferous seed plants in the order Medullosales. The genus is best known for the species Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri, a medium-size tree that was common throughout the late Carboniferous Euramerica. Three similar species, M. macrophylla, M. britannica and M. subauriculata are also included in the genus.
The Peltaspermales are an extinct order of seed plants, often considered "seed ferns". They span from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Jurassic or the Jurassic-Cretaceous Boundary. It includes at least one valid family, Peltaspermaceae, which spans from the Permian to Early Jurassic, which is typified by a group of plants with Lepidopteris leaves, Antevsia pollen-organs, and Peltaspermum ovulate organs, though the family now also includes other genera like Peltaspermopsis, Meyenopteris and Scytophyllum. Along with these, two informal groups of uncertain taxonomic affinities exist, each centered around a specific genus ; Supaia and Comia, known from the Early Permian of the Northern Hemisphere, especially of North America. Both the "Comioids" and the "Supaioids" are associated with the peltaspermacean ovulate organ Autunia. The Late Triassic-Middle Jurassic genus Pachydermophyllum may also have affinities to the peltasperms.
This article records new taxa of fossil plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2019.
Ctenis is a genus of fossil foliage attributable to the Cycadales, being one of the most common genera of cycad fossil leaves in the Mesozoic.
This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2023, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2023.
Komlopteris is an extinct genus of "seed fern" with possible corystosperm affinities. Fossils have been found across both hemispheres, dating from the latest Triassic to the early Eocene (Ypresian), making it the youngest "seed fern" in the fossil record.
This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2024, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2024.
