Sciadophyton

Sciadophyton is a morphotaxon of lower Devonian plants known only from compression fossils.[2][3] It is interpreted as the monoicous gametophyte of a vascular land plant, because its vascularised branches end in a cup-shaped structure bearing gametangia, both antheridia and archegonia,[4] but little structural information is preserved at the cellular level. It formed rosettes of stems, which may have radiated from a basal gametophytic corm-like thallus or from a central 'stem' or even from a root system, although there is not enough evidence to discriminate between these possibilities.[3]

Sciadophyton
Temporal range: Early Devonian[1]
Sciadophyton fossil on display at the Museum of Man and Nature
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Subdivision: †Rhyniophytina
Class: †Rhyniopsida
Order: †Rhyniales
Family: †Rhyniaceae
Genus: †Sciadophyton
Steinrnann 1930

References
  1. Palmer, Douglas; et al. (2009). Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth (first American ed.). New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7566-5573-0.
  2. Remy, W.; Remy, R.; Hass, H.; Schultke, S.; Franzmeyer, F. (1980). "Sciadophyton Steinmann - ein Gametophyt aus dem Siegen" [Sciadophyton Steinmann - a gametophyte of the victories.]. Argumenta Palaeobotanica (in German). 6: 37–72.
  3. Taylor, T. N.; Kerp, H.; Hass, H. (April 2005). "Life history biology of early land plants: deciphering the gametophyte phase". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 102 (16): 5892–7. doi:10.1073/pnas.0501985102. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 556298. PMID 15809414.
  4. Kenrick, P.; Crane, P. R. (1997). The origin and early diversification of land plants: A cladistic study. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.


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