| Orestovia Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | incertae sedis |
| Genus: | † Orestovia |
| Species | |
| |
Orestovia is a lower [2] -middle Devonian [1] thallophyte known from fossilised cuticle, cutinite. Described as an enigmatic taxa, Orestovia has variously been categorised as a brown algae, an algae of unknown affinities, a thalloid non-vascular plant, and an early vascular plant, or even the result of the alternation of generations of some other group. [2]
Orestovia are typically found as paper coals. Individual remains are naked, unbranched, cutinised axes up to 20 cm in length and 2 cm wide, tapering distally. [3] Most specimens are preserved as hollow, cuticular sheaths that often exhibit an epidermis-like cellular pattern. [3] The cuticles bear structures which have been described as representing stomata. [4] Spores are sometimes preserved between its layers of cuticle. [2] A reconstruction looks similar to the extant fern Pilularia globulifera (Marsileaceae) in the water with a creeping rhizome and naked, upright axes. [3]
Orestovia remains have been documented from the following locations, In Russia: Pavlovsk, Voronezh Oblast, [2] Graham Bell Island, Arctic Ocean [5] and the Kuznetsk Basin, Siberia. [4] In China: Luquan, Yunnan. [6]
