Hostinella

Hostinella
Temporal range: Upper Silurian–Lower Devonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Superdivision: Polysporangiomorpha
Division: incertae sedis
Genus: Hostinella
Stur (1882)
Species
  • H. heardii D.Edwards (1980)[1]

Hostinella is a form genus, used for bare dichotomously branching stems (axes) which have not been found in association with spore-forming organs or sporangia and so cannot be assigned to a more precise genus or species.[1] Specimens assigned to this genus have been found in Bathurst Island, Canada, in beds of Upper Silurian age (around 420 million years ago), where the stems are approximately 1.2 mm in diameter;[2] and in Lower Devonian Senni beds (from around 420 to 400 million years ago) where the axes have a straited external appearance and contain xylem with tracheids (diameter: 40 µm).[1]

It is known to co-occur with Krithodeophyton.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Edwards, D. (1980). "Studies on lower Devonian petrifactions from Britain. 1. Pyritised axes of Hostinella from the Brecon Beacons quarry, Powys, South Wales". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 29: 189–181. doi:10.1016/0034-6667(80)90058-5.  edit
  2. ^ Kotyk, M.E.; Basinger, J.F.; Gensel, P.G. & de Freitas, T.A. (2002), "Morphologically complex plant macrofossils from the Late Silurian of Arctic Canada", Am. J. Bot. 89 (6): 1004–1013, doi:10.3732/ajb.89.6.1004