Gosslingia
Temporal range: Early Devonian[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Lycophytes
Plesion: †Zosterophylls
Order: †incertae sedis
Family: †Gosslingiaceae
Genus: †Gosslingia

Gosslingia was a genus of Early Devonian land plant with branching axes.[2] Fossils have been from the Lochkovian to the Pragian, 419 to 408 million years ago.[1]

A cladogram published in 2004 by Crane et al. places Gosslingia in the core of a paraphyletic stem group of broadly defined "zosterophylls", basal to the lycopsids (living and extinct clubmosses and relatives).[3]

lycophytes
       

† Hicklingia

 †basal groups 

Adoketophyton, Discalis, Distichophytum (=Rebuchia), Gumuia, Huia, Zosterophyllum myretonianum, Z. llanoveranum, Z. fertile

 †'core' zosterophylls 

Zosterophyllum divaricatum, Tarella, Oricilla, Gosslingia, Hsua, Thrinkophyton, Protobarinophyton, Barinophyton obscurum, B. citrulliforme, Sawdonia, Deheubarthia, Konioria, Anisophyton, Serrulacaulis, Crenaticaulis

 †basal groups 

Nothia, Zosterophyllum deciduum

 lycopsids 

extant and extinct members

Hao and Xue in 2013 used the absence of terminal sporangia to place the genus in the family Gosslingiaceae in the paraphyletic order Gosslingiales, a group considered to have indeterminate growth, with fertile branches generally showing circinate vernation (initially curled up).[1] Kenrick and Crane in 1997 also placed the genus in the family Gosslingiaceae, but they place this family in the order Sawdoniales.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Hao, Shougang & Xue, Jinzhuang (2013). The early Devonian Posongchong flora of Yunnan: a contribution to an understanding of the evolution and early diversification of vascular plants. Beijing: Science Press. pp. 52–54. ISBN 978-7-03-036616-0. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  2. ^ Boyce, C.K. (2008). "How green was Cooksonia? The importance of size in understanding the early evolution of physiology in the vascular plant lineage". Paleobiology. 34 (2): 179–194. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2008)034[0179:HGWCTI]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0094-8373.
  3. ^ Crane, P.R.; Herendeen, P.; Friis, E.M. (2004). "Fossils and plant phylogeny". American Journal of Botany. 91 (10): 1683–99. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1683. PMID 21652317.
  4. ^ Kenrick, Paul & Crane, Peter R. (1997). The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants: A Cladistic Study. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-56098-730-7.

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