| Noeggerathia Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 1863 reconstruction of Noeggerathia expansa | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Class: | † Progymnospermopsida |
| Order: | † Noeggerathiales |
| Family: | † Noeggerathiaceae |
| Genus: | † Noeggerathia Sternb., 1820 [1] |
| Type species | |
| Noeggerathia foliosa | |
| Species | |
See text | |
Noeggerathia is an extinct genus of noeggerathialean plant that lived during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. [2]
Noeggerathia could grow to be 3 ft, 3 in tall. [2] It is known for its compound leaves, each possessing two rows of leaflets which composed a 12-inch frond. [2] Noeggerathia may also have possessed a short trunk. [2]
The genus may have possessed strobili at the ends of its branches for reproductive purposes. [3] Biseriate sporophylls existed on either side of the cones. [3] It has been previously suggested that Noeggerathiostrobus may have been borne at the end of Noeggerathia's stems, although it is more likely that Noeggerathiostrobus was borne closer to the base of Noeggerathia. [4]
Noeggerathia was named after Johann Jakob Nöggerath, a geologist from Germany. [1] [2] The genus was described in 1820 by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg. [1]
Noeggerathia and noeggerathialeans in general have been described as difficult to classify as early as 1906 [1] and as recently as 2009. [2] In 1906, the genus was believed to belong to Cycadaceae, a family which currently consists only of Cycas . [1]
The species described under Noeggerathia include the following: [5]
Specimens of Noeggerathia have been discovered worldwide. [2] As of 1906, Noeggerathia was known from finds in the European Coal Measures, and there it was considered to be rare. [1]
Several well-preserved specimens of Noeggerathia and related plants have been discovered in the Bohemian Massif, with N. foliosa having the most complete fossil record in that area. [6] N. dickeri has been described from the Upper Sandstone Formation of the Sinai Peninsula. [7]
Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeography), and the evolutionary history of plants, with a bearing upon the evolution of life in general. A synonym is paleophytology. It is a component of paleontology and paleobiology. The prefix palaeo- or paleo- means "ancient, old", and is derived from the Greek adjective παλαιός, palaios. Paleobotany includes the study of terrestrial plant fossils, as well as the study of prehistoric marine photoautotrophs, such as photosynthetic algae, seaweeds or kelp. A closely related field is palynology, which is the study of fossilized and extant spores and pollen.
Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed plants known as Glossopteridales. The genus Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within a framework of form genera used in paleobotany. Species of Glossopteris were the dominant trees of the middle to high-latitude lowland vegetation across the supercontinent Gondwana during the Permian Period. Glossopteris fossils were critical in recognizing former connections between the various fragments of Gondwana: South America, Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica.
The zosterophylls are a group of extinct land plants that first appeared in the Silurian period. The taxon was first established by Banks in 1968 as the subdivision Zosterophyllophytina; they have since also been treated as the division Zosterophyllophyta or Zosterophyta and the class or plesion Zosterophyllopsida or Zosteropsida. They were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and had a world-wide distribution. They were probably stem-group lycophytes, forming a sister group to the ancestors of the living lycophytes. By the late Silurian a diverse assemblage of species existed, examples of which have been found fossilised in what is now Bathurst Island in Arctic Canada.
Droseridites is a genus of extinct plants of possible droseracean or nepenthacean affinity. It is a form taxon known only from fossil pollen. Species assigned to this genus originate from numerous regions of the world, including Europe, India, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Kerguelen Islands.
Wattieza was a genus of prehistoric trees that existed in the mid-Devonian that belong to the cladoxylopsids, close relatives of the modern ferns and horsetails. The 2005 discovery in Schoharie County, New York, of fossils from the Middle Devonian about 385 million years ago united the crown of Wattieza to a root and trunk known since 1870. The fossilized grove of "Gilboa stumps" discovered at Gilboa, New York, were described as Eospermatopteris, though the complete plant remained unknown. These fossils have been described as the earliest known trees, standing 8 m (26 ft) or more tall, resembling the unrelated modern tree fern.
Tortilicaulis is a moss-like plant known from fossils recovered from southern Britain, spanning the Silurian-Devonian boundary. Originally recovered from the Downtonian of the Welsh borderlands, Tortilicaulis has since been recovered in the famous Ludlow Lane locality.
Ornatifilum is an artificial form genus, which is used to categorise any small, branched filaments with external ornamentation.
Psaronius is an extinct genus marattialean tree fern which grew to 10m in height, and is associated with leaves of the organ genus Pecopteris and other extinct tree ferns. Originally, Psaronius was a name for the petrified stems, but today the genus is used for the entire tree fern. Psaronius tree fern fossils are found from the Carboniferous through the Permian.
Pertica is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early to Middle Devonian. It has been placed in the "trimerophytes", a strongly paraphyletic group of early members of the lineage leading to modern ferns and seed plants.
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.
Yunia is a genus of extinct vascular plants from the Early Devonian. It was first described from the Posongchong Formation of Yunnan, China. The leafless plant consisted of spiny stems, some 2 to 5 cm wide, which branched dichotomously at wide angles in a cruciate arrangement. Each stem contained vascular tissue with one or two strands of protoxylem. The spore-forming organs (sporangia) were elongated and borne on short stalks. The spores had a relatively smooth sculptural pattern and were trilete.
The lowermost Upper Devonian fossil Pallaviciniites was for a time the oldest known liverwort until Metzgeriothallus was recovered from earlier Devonian strata.
Adoketophyton is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian. The plant was first described in 1977 based on fossil specimens from the Posongchong Formation, Wenshan district, Yunnan, China. These were originally named Zosterophyllum subverticillatum; later the species was transferred to a new genus as Adoketophyton subverticillatum. One cladistic analysis suggested that it is a lycophyte, related to the zosterophylls. Other researchers regard its placement within the vascular plants as uncertain.
Demersatheca is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian. Fossils were first found in the Posongchong Formation of eastern Yunnan, China. The plant had smooth leafless stems at least 1 mm in diameter, but only regions which bore spore-forming organs or sporangia are well-known. Sporangia were borne in 'spikes' or strobili, at least 40 mm long; one had 32 sporangia. Sporangia were arranged in four rows, two sporangia being opposite to one another on the stem with the next two being at right angles. Each sporangium consisted of two 'valves' which opened at the top to release their spores. A particular feature of Demersatheca which distinguishes it from other zosterophylls is that the stalk-less sporangia were sunken into the stem of the spike, so that the outer valve was flush with the surface.
Taeniocrada is a genus of extinct plants of Devonian age. It is used as a form genus for fossil plants with leafless flattened stems which divided dichotomously and had prominent midribs regarded as containing vascular tissues. It has been suggested that some species assigned to this genus were aquatic.
Agathoxylon is a form genus of fossil wood, including massive tree trunks. Although identified from the late Palaeozoic to the end of the Mesozoic, Agathoxylon is common from the Carboniferous to Triassic. Agathoxylon represents the wood of multiple conifer groups, including both Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae, with late Paleozoic and Triassic forms possibly representing other conifers or other seed plant groups like "pteridosperms".
Ginkgo yimaensis is an extinct ginkgo species in the family Ginkgoaceae. It is a gymnosperm, first described by Zhou and Zhang.
Calamopityaceae is the largest family of the division of extinct seed-bearing plants (spermatophytes) known as Pteridospermatophyta. It is the only family in the monotypic order Calamopityales. This family is characterized by its petioles and specific wood pattern, and it grew only in the Paleozoic era, specifically in North America and Europe. Three form genera within the family are diagnosed by their stem structure: Calamopitys, Stenomyelon, and Diichinia. It was named by Solms-Laubach in 1896. Since then, its genera have been added to and grouped differently.
The barinophytes are a group of extinct vascular plants (tracheophytes). Their relationship with other vascular plants is unclear. They have been treated as the separate class Barinophytopsida, the order Barinophytales of uncertain class and as a family or clade Barinophytaceae within the zosterophylls. They have also been considered to be possible lycopodiopsids.
Kenomagnathus is a genus of synapsid belonging to the Sphenacodontia, which lived during the Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous in what is now Garnett, Kansas, United States. It contains one species, Kenomagnathus scottae, based on a specimen consisting of the maxilla and lacrimal bones of the skull, which was catalogued as ROM 43608 and originally classified as belonging to "Haptodus" garnettensis. Frederik Spindler named it as a new genus in 2020.