- Baragwanathia
Taxobox
name = "Baragwanathia"
fossil_range = EarlyLudlow (Gorstian, lateSilurian )cite journal
author = Rickards, R.B.
year = 2000
title = The age of the earliest club mosses: the Silurian Baragwanathia flora in Victoria, Australia
journal = Geological Magazine
volume = 137
issue = 2
pages = 207–209
url = http://geolmag.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/137/2/207
accessdate = 2007-10-25
doi = 10.1017/S0016756800003800
format = abstract] -Early Devonian
regnum =Plant ae
divisio =Lycopodiophyta
classis =Lycopodiopsida
ordo =Drepanophycales
familia =Drepanophycaceae
genus = "Baragwanathia" †
genus_authority = Lang & Cookson, 1935
subdivision_ranks =Species
subdivision =
*"Baragwanathia longifolia " aut|Lang & Cookson (Type species)
*"Baragwanathia abitibiensis " aut|Hueber
*"Baragwanathia" sp. aut|Hao & Gensel"Baragwanathia" is a genus of extinct plants of the division
Lycopodiophyta of LateSilurian to EarlyDevonian age, fossils of which have been found in Australia, Canada and China.Description
"Baragwanathia" is a primitive
lycopod , differing from such taxa as "Asteroxylon " in the presence of vascular tissue in its leaves - "Asteroxylon" has vascule-freeenations . It is set apart from the closely related genus "Drepanophycus ", of the same period, in the position of the sporangia, the type of stele, and the arrangement and shape of the leaves. (SeeDrepanophycaceae for more details.)These extinct terrestrialvascular plant s of the ?LateSilurian has stems several mm to several cm in diameter and several cm to several metres long, erect or arched, dichotomizing occasionally, furnished with true roots at the base. Vascular bundle actinostele,tracheid s of primitive annular or helical type (so-called G-type). Leaves are unbranched strap-shapedmicrophyll s 1-2 cm long with a single prominent vascular thread, arranged spirally on the stem. Sporangia axillary (exact position not known), broader than long, dehiscing by a slit on top.Spore s were trilete; the gametophyte is currently unknown.References
Lang WH and Cookson IC (1935) On a flora, including vascular land plants, associated with Monograptus, in rocks of Silurian age, from Victoria, Australia. "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London" B224, 421-449.
Hueber, FM (1983) A new species of "Baragwanathia" from the Sextant Formation (Emsian) Northern Ontario, Canada. "Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany)" 86, 57-79.
Hao SG and Gensel PG (2001) The Posongchang Floral Assemblages of Southeastern Yunnan, China - Diversity and Disparity in Early Devonian Plant Assemblages. In "Plants Invade the Land. Evolutionary and Environmental Perspectives", pp. 103-119. Eds PG Gensel and D Edwards. (Columbia University Press, New York).
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