Pseudobornia

Pseudobornia
Temporal range: Late Devonian[1]
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Equisetopsida
Order: Pseudoborniales
Family: Pseudoborniaceae
Genus: Pseudobornia
Nathorst.
Species: P. ursina
Binomial name
Pseudobornia ursina †
Nathorst.

Pseudobornia is a genus of plants known only from fossils found from the Upper Devonian.[1] It contains a single species Pseudobornia ursina, and is the earliest fossil assigned with certainty to the Sphenopsida.

The first fossils of Pseudobornia were collected by Johan Gunnar Andersson on Bear Island in the 1890s.[2] Hans-Joachim Schweitzer, a paleobotanist, was the first to interpret the fossils as belonging to a large tree, based on additional fossils discovered in Alaska in the 1960s.[3][4]

The probable relationships within Equisetopsida are shown in the cladogram below. The position where Ibyka would be has been added.[5]

†Ibyka(?)



†Pseudobornia ursina



†Sphenophyllales



†Archeocalamitaceae



†Calamitaceae



Equisetaceae







References

  1. ^ a b Taylor, Thomas N.; Edith L. Taylor. (1993). The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. pp. 305–307. ISBN 0-13-651589-4. 
  2. ^ "Paleontology: World's First Tall Tree". Time. 1967, June 16. 
  3. ^ Schweitzer, H.-J. (1967). "Die Oberdevon-Flora der Bäreninsel I. Pseudobornia ursina Nathorst.". Palaeontographica 120B: 116—137. 
  4. ^ Schweitzer, H.-J. (1967). "Ein Riesenschachtelhalm aus dem Oberdevon, Pseudobornia ursina". Umschau in Wissenschaft und Technik 6: 196. 
  5. ^ "Introduction to the Sphenophyta". University of California Museum of Paleontology. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/plants/sphenophyta/sphenophyta.html. Retrieved 31 July 2011.