Cladoxylopsid
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| Cladoxylopsida Fossil range: Middle Devonian |
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The cladoxylopsids are a group of plants known only as fossils that are thought to be ancestors of ferns and horsetails.
They had a central trunk, from the top of which several lateral branches were attached. Fossils of these plants originate in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, mostly just as stems.
Taxonomy is still uncertain, the major taxon being Cladoxylopsida which includes two orders, Cladoxylales and Hyeniales
Intact fossils of the Middle Devonian cladoxylopsid Wattieza show it to have been a tree, the earliest identified in the fossil record as of 2007.
[edit] References
- Stein, W. E., F. Mannolini, L. V. Hernick, E. Landling, and C. M. Berry. 2007. Giant cladoxylopsid trees resolve the enigma of the Earth's earliest forest stumps at Gilboa. Nature, 446:904-907.
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