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Psilophyton is a genus of extinct vascular plants. Described in 1859, it was one of the first fossil plants to be found which was of Devonian age (about 420 to 360 million years ago ). Specimens have been found in northern Maine , USA; Gaspé Bay , Quebec and New Brunswick , Canada; the Czech Republic ; and Yunnan , China.
This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there.
The class was created in 1917 by Kidston and Lang for fossils found in the Rhynie Chert Bed. [4] Three genera were initially included, Rhynia, Horneophyton and Psilophyton. All lacked leaves and true roots, consisting only of branched stems; however they were considered to contain vascular tissue. [1] Additional fossil genera were added later.
The Trout Valley Formation also contains fossilized Psilophyton plants, as well as a number of other taxa, including Pertica quadrifaria, the official state fossil, [3] the tallest plant of its age known from anywhere in the world.
Trimerophytopsida (or Trimeropsida) is a class of early vascular plants from the Devonian, informally called trimerophytes.It contains genera such as Psilophyton.This group is probably paraphyletic, and is believed to be the ancestral group from which both the ferns and seed plants evolved.
Fossil of the Middle Ordovician trilobite Illaenus †Illaenus †Kaulangiophyton †Kaulangiophyton akantha †Kolihadiscus †Kolihadiscus somerseti – type locality for species †Leptaena †Leptaena rhomboidalis †Lesueurilla – tentative report †Lophospira †Lophospira milleri – or unidentified comparable form †Mesoleptostrophia ...
The first species of this genus (Sawdonia ornata) was described in 1859 by Sir J. William Dawson and, was originally attributed to the genus Psilophyton. He named this plant Psilophyton princeps. In 1971 Francis Hueber proposed a new genus for this species due to its "Divergent technical characters from the generic description for Psilophyton."
The fossils were better-preserved than Dawson's, and showed clearly that these early land plants did indeed consist of generally naked vertical stems arising from similar horizontal structures. The vertical stems were dichotomously branched with some branches ending in sporangia.