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 Equisetopsida.
| Pseudobornia Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Pseudobornia ursina | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Division: | Polypodiophyta |
| Class: | Polypodiopsida |
| Subclass: | Equisetidae |
| Order: | †Pseudoborniales |
| Genus: | †Pseudobornia Nathorst. |
| Species: | †P. ursina
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Pseudobornia ursina | |
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 Equisetidae are shown in the cladogram below. The position where Ibyka would be has been added.[5]
References edit
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Paleontology: World's First Tall Tree". Time. June 16, 1967.
- ^ Schweitzer, H.-J. (1967). "Die Oberdevon-Flora der Bäreninsel I. Pseudobornia ursina Nathorst". Palaeontographica. 120B: 116–137.
- ^ Schweitzer, H.-J. (1967). "Ein Riesenschachtelhalm aus dem Oberdevon, Pseudobornia ursina". Umschau in Wissenschaft und Technik. 6: 196.
- ^ "Introduction to the Sphenophyta". University of California Museum of Paleontology. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
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