Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of gymnosperm tree native to East Asia. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago, and fossils very similar to the living species, belonging to the genus Ginkgo, extend back to the Middle Jurassic epoch approximately 170 million years ago. The tree was cultivated early in human history and remains commonly planted, and is widely regarded as a living fossil.
The lycophytes, when broadly circumscribed, are a group of vascular plants that include the clubmosses. They are sometimes placed in a division Lycopodiophyta or Lycophyta or in a subdivision Lycopodiophytina. They are one of the oldest lineages of extant (living) vascular plants; the group contains extinct plants that have been dated from the Silurian. Lycophytes were some of the dominating plant species of the Carboniferous period, and included the tree-like Lepidodendrales, some of which grew over 40 metres (130 ft) in height, although extant lycophytes are relatively small plants.
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow slowly and have long lifespans. Because of their superficial resemblance to palms or ferns, they are sometimes mistaken for them, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific species of beetle. Both male and female cycads bear cones (strobili), somewhat similar to conifer cones.
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.
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.
Archaeopteris is an extinct genus of progymnosperm tree with fern-like leaves. A useful index fossil, this tree is found in strata dating from the Upper Devonian to Lower Carboniferous, the oldest fossils being 385 million years old, and had global distribution.
Calamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of 30–50 meters. They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period.
Hylonomus is an extinct genus of reptile that lived 318 million years ago during the Bashkirian stage of the Late Carboniferous. It is the earliest known crown group amniote and the oldest known unquestionable reptile, with the only known species being Hylonomus lyelli. Despite being amongst the oldest known reptiles, it is not the most primitive member of the group, being a eureptile more derived than either parareptiles or captorhinids.
Hibbertopterus is a genus of eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Hibbertopterus have been discovered in deposits ranging from the Devonian period in Belgium, Scotland and the United States to the Carboniferous period in Scotland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and South Africa. The type species, H. scouleri, was first named as a species of the significantly different Eurypterus by Samuel Hibbert in 1836. The generic name Hibbertopterus, coined more than a century later, combines his name and the Greek word πτερόν (pteron) meaning "wing".
Arthropleura is a genus of massive myriapod that lived in what is now Europe and North America around 345 to 290 million years ago, from the Viséan stage of the lower Carboniferous Period to the Sakmarian stage of the lower Permian Period. It is related to millipedes, and was capable of reaching at least 2 metres in length, possibly up to over 2.5 metres, making it the largest known land arthropod of all time. Arthropleura is known from body fossils as well as trace fossils, particularly giant trackways up to 50 centimetres (20 in) wide, and potentially also large burrows. It lived in open, sparsely wooded environments near water, and was possibly amphibious.
Prototaxites is an extinct genus of terrestrial 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.
Adelophthalmus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Adelophthalmus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from the Early Devonian to the Early Permian, which makes it the longest lived of all known eurypterid genera, with a total temporal range of over 120 million years. Adelopththalmus was the final genus of the Eurypterina suborder of eurypterids and consisted the only known genus of swimming eurypterids from the Middle Devonian until its extinction during the Permian, after which the few surviving eurypterids were all walking forms of the suborder Stylonurina.
Lepidodendrales or arborescent lycophytes are an extinct order of primitive, vascular, heterosporous, arborescent (tree-like) plants belonging to Lycopodiopsida. Members of Lepidodendrales are the best understood of the fossil lycopsids due to the vast diversity of Lepidodendrales specimens and the diversity in which they were preserved; the extensive distribution of Lepidodendrales specimens as well as their well-preservedness lends paleobotanists exceptionally detailed knowledge of the coal-swamp giants’ reproductive biology, vegetative development, and role in their paleoecosystem. The defining characteristics of the Lepidodendrales are their secondary xylem, extensive periderm development, three-zoned cortex, rootlike appendages known as stigmarian rootlets arranged in a spiralling pattern, and megasporangium each containing a single functional megaspore that germinates inside the sporangium. Many of these different plant organs have been assigned both generic and specific names as relatively few have been found organically attached to each other. Some specimens have been discovered which indicate heights of 40 and even 50 meters and diameters of over 2 meters at the base. The massive trunks of some species branched profusely, producing large crowns of leafy twigs; though some leaves were up to 1 meter long, most were much shorter, and when leaves dropped from branches their conspicuous leaf bases remained on the surface of branches. Strobili could be found at the tips of distal branches or in an area at the top of the main trunk. The underground organs of Lepidodendrales typically consisted of dichotomizing axes bearing helically arranged, lateral appendages serving an equivalent function to roots. Sometimes called "giant club mosses", they are believed to be more closely related to extant quillworts based on xylem, although fossil specimens of extinct Selaginellales from the Late Carboniferous also had secondary xylem.
Noeggerathia is an extinct genus of noeggerathialean plant that lived during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods.
Tietea was a genus of marattialean tree ferns from the Late Carboniferous to the Permian. The genus has been placed in a number of families, including Psaroniaceae. The first described species was Tietea singularis, which grew up to 12 metres (39 ft) in height. It is estimated to represent close to 90% of some fossil assemblages in Brazil. Tietea derbyi was described in 1992, but its validity has been questioned as it could be a laterally flattened specimen of T. singularis.
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 Albert Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early Mississippian (Tournaisian) age in the Moncton Subbasin of southeastern New Brunswick. It was deposited in a lacustrine environment and includes fossils of fish and land plants, as well as trace fossils. It also includes significant deposits of oil shale. The oil shale beds are the source rocks for the petroleum and natural gas that has been produced from Albert Formation reservoirs at the Stoney Creek and McCully fields. In addition, the solid asphalt-like hydrocarbon albertite was mined from the Albert Formation at Albert Mines between 1854 and 1884.
Davidia involucrata, the dove-tree, handkerchief tree, pocket handkerchief tree, or ghost tree, is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the family Nyssaceae. It is the only living species in the genus Davidia. It was previously included with tupelos in the dogwood family, Cornaceae. Fossil species are known extending into the Upper Cretaceous.
Patricia Gabbey Gensel is an American botanist and paleobotanist.
Dendromaia is an extinct genus of varanopid from the Carboniferous of Nova Scotia. It contains a single species, Dendromaia unamakiensis. Dendromaia is the oldest known varanopid, the only member of which to be discovered in Nova Scotia. Known from a large partial skeleton preserved with its tail wrapped around a much smaller partial skeleton, Dendromaia may also represent the oldest known occurrence of parental care in the fossil record. While the larger skeleton possessed certain mycterosaurine-like features, the smaller skeleton resembled basal varanopids such as Archaeovenator and Pyozia, creating uncertainty over whether characteristics at the base of Varanopidae have legitimate phylogenetic significance or instead reflect the immaturity of basal varanopid specimens.
