Tortilicaulis

taxobox
fossil_range = Late Silurian to early Devonian
title="Tortilicaulis"
regnum = Plantae
divisio = unassigned
classis = Horneophytopsida
genus = "Tortilicaulis"
genus_authority = Edwards 1979cite journal
author = Edwards, D.
year = 1979
title = A late Silurian flora from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of south-west Dyfed
journal = Palaeontology
volume = 22
pages = 23–52 ]
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"T. transwalliensis":Edwards 1979
*"T. offaeus":Edwards 1979

"Tortilicaulis" is a moss-like plantcite book | last = Kenrick | first = Paul | coauthors = Peter R. Crane | year = 1997 | title = The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants : A Cladistic Study | location = Washington, D.C. | publisher = Smithsonian Institution Press | pages=pp. 139-140, 249 | isbn = 1-56098-730-8 ] 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.cite book
author = Edwards, D.
coauthors = Wellman, C.
year = 2001
chapter = Embryophytes on land: the Ordovician to Lochkovian (Lower Devonian) record
title = Plants Invade the Land: Evolutionary and Environmental Perspectives
editors = Patricia Gensel & Dianne Edwards
publisher = New York: Columbia University Press
pages = 3-28
url = http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=cache:d8CI6OyD2XsJ:www.earthscape.org/r3/ES14452/gensel_ch2.pdf
doi = 10.1016/S0166-5162(02)00080-0
issn = 0960-4286]

Whilst it is generally accepted that "Tortilicaulis" was moss-like, it has not yet been recovered in a sufficiently good state of preservation to allow the detailed study necessary to assign it to a taxonomic group. Fossils consist of an elongate apical sporangium with spiralled walls attached to an undivided stalk that is also twisted.cite book | year=1993 | last=Taylor | first=Thomas N. | coauthors=Edith L. Taylor | title=The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants | pages=138, 197 | location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ | publisher=Prentice Hall | isbn=0-13-651589-4 ] cite journal
author = Gerrienne, P.
year = 1997
title = The fossil plants from the Lower Devonian of Marchin (northern margin of Dinant Synclinorium, Belgium). V. Psilophyton genseliae sp. nov., with hypotheses on the origin of Trimerophytina
journal = Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
volume = 98
issue = 3
pages = 303–324
doi = 10.1016/S0034-6667(97)00010-9] Unusually for plants of its time, spores of "Tortilicaulis" were covered all over with small granules.cite journal
author = Edwards, D.
year = 1994
title = Lower Devonian coalified sporangia from Shropshire: "Salopella" Edwards & Richardson and "Tortilicaulis" Edwards
journal = Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
volume = 116
issue = 2
pages = 89–110] cite journal
author = Edwards, D.
year = 1996
title = New insights into early land ecosystems: a glimpse of a lilliputian world
journal = Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
volume = 90
issue = 3
pages = 159–174
doi = 10.1016/0034-6667(95)00081-X]

The initial suspicions of its describer, Dianne Edwards, were that it was a bryophyte, and comparisons have been made with several groups. A potential association with the moss "Takakia" is supported by features of the sporangia, such as the elongate shape, unusual twisting, and terminal position of the sporangia. Cladistic analysis suggests that the genus may belong to the Horneophytopsida.

References