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.
Lepidodendron is an extinct genus of primitive lycopodian vascular plants belonging the order Lepidodendrales. It is well preserved and common in the fossil record. Like other Lepidodendrales, species of Lepidodendron grew as large-tree-like plants in wetland coal forest environments. They sometimes reached heights of 50 metres, and the trunks were often over 1 m in diameter. They are often known as "scale trees", due to their bark having been covered in diamond shaped leaf-bases, from which leaves grew during earlier stages of growth. However, they are correctly defined as arborescent lycophytes. They thrived during the Carboniferous Period, and persisted until the end of the Permian around 252 million years ago. Sometimes erroneously called "giant club mosses", the genus was actually more closely related to modern quillworts than to modern club mosses. In the form classification system used in paleobotany, Lepidodendron is both used for the whole plant as well as specifically the stems and leaves.
Birbal Sahni FRS was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He also took an interest in geology and archaeology. He founded what is now the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in 1946. His major contributions were in the study of the fossil plants of India and in plant evolution. He was also involved in the establishment of Indian science education and served as the President of the National Academy of Sciences, India and as an Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm.
Williamsonia is a genus of plant belonging to Bennettitales, an extinct order of seed plants. Within the form classification system used in paleobotany, Williamsonia is used to refer to female seed cones, which are associated with plants that also bore the male flower-like reproductive structure Weltrichia.
Sir Albert Charles Seward FRS was a British botanist and geologist.
Prototaxites is an extinct genus of terrestrial fossil fungi dating from the Late Silurian until the Late Devonian periods. Prototaxites formed large trunk-like structures up to 1 metre (3 ft) wide, reaching 8 metres (26 ft) in length, made up of interwoven tubes around 50 micrometres (0.0020 in) in diameter, making it by far the largest land-dwelling organism of its time.
Ginkgo is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and Ginkgo is now the only living genus within the order. The rate of evolution within the genus has been slow, and almost all its species had become extinct by the end of the Pliocene. The sole surviving species, Ginkgo biloba, is found in the wild only in China, but is cultivated around the world. The relationships between ginkgos and other groups of plants are not fully resolved.
Koonwarra is a town in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Koonwarra had a population of 404. The town straddles the South Gippsland Highway. Located around 128 km southeast of Melbourne, the town was served by rail from the 1890s until 1991 with the closing of the rail line to Barry Beach.
Sphenophyllales is an extinct order of articulate land plants and a sister group to the present-day Equisetales (horsetails). They are fossils dating from the Devonian to the Triassic. They were common during the Late Pennsylvanian to Early Permian, with most of the fossils coming from the Carboniferous period.
Sphenobaiera is a form genus for plant leaves belonging to the order Ginkgoales found in rocks from Triassic to Cretaceous periods. The genus Sphenobaiera is used for plants with wedge-shaped leaves that can be distinguished from Ginkgo, Ginkgoites and Baiera by the lack of a petiole. It became extinct about 72.6 million years ago. The family to which this genus belongs has not been conclusively established; an affinity with the Karkeniaceae has been suggested on morphological grounds.
Ginkgo huttonii is an extinct Ginkgo species in the family Ginkgoaceae from the Jurassic of England. The fossil is also known by the name, Ginkgoites huttonii, the genus, Ginkgoites, referring to a group of extinct members of the Ginkgoaceae. G. huttonii was a broad-leaved, deciduous gymnosperm bearing resemblance to the only living member of the Ginkgoaceae, Ginkgo biloba.
Cyclodendron was a genus of lycophytes dating from the Permian. Plants were vascularized with reproduction by spores.
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 Permian-Triassic extinction event, and L. ottonis forms a comparable acme zone immediate before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. Lepidopteris would persist into the Early Jurassic in Patagonia, represented by the species Lepidopteris scassoi.
Glyptolepis is an extinct morphogenus of female conifer cones from the Triassic. It was established in 1872 by the French botanist Wilhelm Philippe Schimper. The morphogenus is characterized by having bract scale complexes with elongated seed scale stalks. The seed scales each contain two recurved ovules and are distinctively flattened with five or six lobes. The name is derived from Ancient Greek γλυπτό and λεπίς.
Dipteris is a genus of about seven species of ferns, native to tropical regions across the world, particularly Asia, with a species in northeastern Queensland in Australia. It is one of two genera in the family Dipteridaceae.
Baiera is a genus of prehistoric gymnosperms in the order Ginkgoales. It is one of the oldest fossil foliage types of Ginkgoales, and is related to the genera Ginkgo and Ginkgoites. Fossils of Baiera are found worldwide, and have been known from the Permian to the Cretaceous.
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.
Pseudoctenis is a genus of fossil foliage attributable to the Cycadales. It is one of the most common genera of cycad fossil foliage in the Mesozoic.
This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2022, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2022.
Helen Holme Simmons FRS FLS, commonly known as Nellie Bancroft, was a British botanist and scientific illustrator famous for her work on plant systematics and the anatomy of both living and fossil plants. Bancroft was while working for the Imperial Forestry Institute in France in 1940 captured by the Germans and spent four years in internment before being released and returning home in 1944.
