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Isoetales
Isoetales, sometimes also written Isoëtales, is an order of plants in the class Lycopodiopsida. There are about 140-150 living species, all of which are classified in the genus ''Isoetes'' (quillworts), with a cosmopolitan distribution, but often scarce to rare. Living species are mostly aquatic or semi-aquatic, and are found in clear ponds and slowly moving streams. Each leaf is slender and broadens downward to a swollen base up to 5 mm wide where the leaves attach in clusters to a bulb-like, underground corm characteristic of most quillworts. This swollen base also contains male and female sporangia, protected by a thin, transparent covering (velum), which is used diagnostically to help identify quillwort species. Quillwort species are very difficult to distinguish by general appearance. The best way to identify them is by examining the megaspores under a microscope. ''Isoetes'' are the only living pteridophytes capable of secondary growth. Fossils Fossilised specimen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycopodiopsida
Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching stems bearing simple leaves called microphylls and reproduce by means of spores borne in sporangia on the sides of the stems at the bases of the leaves. Although living species are small, during the Carboniferous, extinct tree-like forms formed huge forests that dominated the landscape and contributed to coal deposits. The nomenclature and classification of plants with microphylls varies substantially among authors. A consensus classification for extant (living) species was produced in 2016 by the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (PPG I), which places them all in the class Lycopodiopsida, which includes the classes Isoetopsida and Selaginellopsida used in other systems. (See Table 2.) Alternative classification systems have used ranks fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycophytes
The lycophytes, when broadly circumscribed, are a vascular plant (tracheophyte) subgroup of the kingdom Plantae. They are sometimes placed in a division Lycopodiophyta or Lycophyta or in a subdivision Lycopodiophytina. They are one of the oldest lineages of extant (living) vascular plants; the group contains extinct plants that have been dated from the Silurian (ca. 425 million years ago). Lycophytes were some of the dominating plant species of the Carboniferous period, and included tree-like species, although extant lycophytes are relatively small plants. The scientific names and the informal English names used for this group of plants are ambiguous. For example, "Lycopodiophyta" and the shorter "Lycophyta" as well as the informal "lycophyte" may be used to include the extinct zosterophylls or to exclude them. Description Lycophytes reproduce by spores and have alternation of generations in which (like other vascular plants) the sporophyte generation is dominant. Some lycophyte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isoetes
''Isoetes'', commonly known as the quillworts, is the only extant genus of plants in the family Isoetaceae, which is in the class of lycopods. There are currently 192 recognized species, with a cosmopolitan distribution but with the individual species often scarce to rare. Some botanists split the genus, separating two South American species into the genus ''Stylites'', although molecular data place these species among other species of ''Isoetes'', so that ''Stylites'' does not warrant taxonomic recognition. Species of ''Isoetes'' virtually identical to modern forms have existed since the Jurassic epoch. The name of the genus may also be spelled ''Isoëtes''. The diaeresis (two dots over the e) indicates that the o and the e are to be pronounced in two distinct syllables. Including this in print is optional; either spelling (''Isoetes'' or ''Isoëtes'') is correct. Description Quillworts are mostly aquatic or semi-aquatic in clear ponds and slow-moving streams, though several ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pteridophyte
A pteridophyte is a vascular plant (with xylem and phloem) that disperses spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as "cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is hidden. Ferns, horsetails (often treated as ferns), and lycophytes (clubmosses, spikemosses, and quillworts) are all pteridophytes. However, they do not form a monophyletic group because ferns (and horsetails) are more closely related to seed plants than to lycophytes. "Pteridophyta" is thus no longer a widely accepted taxon, but the term ''pteridophyte'' remains in common parlance, as do ''pteridology'' and ''pteridologist'' as a science and its practitioner, respectively. Ferns and lycophytes share a life cycle and are often collectively treated or studied, for example by the International Association of Pteridologists and the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group. Description Pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes) are free-sporing vascular plants that have a lif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleuromeiaceae
Pleuromeiaceae is an extinct family of plants related to living quillworts (''Isoetes''), in the order Isoetales Isoetales, sometimes also written Isoëtales, is an order of plants in the class Lycopodiopsida. There are about 140-150 living species, all of which are classified in the genus ''Isoetes'' (quillworts), with a cosmopolitan distribution, but o ... but with tall stems and terminal compact cones. They were especially widespread globally during the Early and Middle Triassic in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. References Prehistoric plant families Prehistoric lycophytes {{paleo-lycophyte-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order (biology)
Order ( la, wikt:ordo#Latin, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between Family_(biology), family and Class_(biology), class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. An immediately higher rank, superorder, is sometimes added directly above order, with suborder directly beneath order. An order can also be defined as a group of related families. What does and does not belong to each order is determined by a taxonomist, as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognized only rarely. The name of an order is usually written with a capital letter. Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isoetes Beestonii
''Isoetes beestonii'' is the oldest known species of the living quillwort genus from the latest Permian of New South Wales and Queensland. Originally considered earliest Triassic, it is now known to be latest Permian in age, immediately before the Permian Triassic mass extinction. Description ''Isoetes beestonii'' is preserved as whole plants in life position within bedding planes, and presumably lived as an early successional weed in lake and pond sedimentary environments, like living ''Isoetes''. Its leaves were wider and more succulent than modern species of ''Isoetes''. Like modern ''Isoetes'', fertile plants were little different from sterile plants, unlike Early Triassic ''Tomiostrobus'' which formed woody conelike fertile plants. See also * Evolution of plants The evolution of plants has resulted in a wide range of complexity, from the earliest algal mats, through multicellular marine and freshwater green algae, terrestrial bryophytes, lycopods and ferns, to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleuromeia
''Pleuromeia'' is an extinct genus of lycophytes. They are related to modern quillworts (''Isoetes''). ''Pleuromeia'' dominated vegetation during the Early Triassic all over Eurasia and elsewhere, in the aftermath of the collapse of floral communities during the Permian–Triassic extinction event, often occurring in monospecific assemblages. Its sedimentary context in monospecific assemblages on immature paleosols, is evidence that it was an opportunistic pioneer plant that grew on mineral soils with little competition. It spread to high latitudes with greenhouse climatic conditions. Conifers reoccurred in the Early Anisian, followed by the cycads and pteridosperms during the Late Anisian. Description ''Pleuromeia'' consisted of a single unbranched stem of variable thickness, which could grow to a maximum of in height. Around the stem were helically arranged leaves. It had a 2-4 lobed bulbous base to which numerous adventive roots are attached. ''Pleuromeia'' produced a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin ''creta'', "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation ''Kreide''. The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carboniferous'' means "coal-bearing", from the Latin '' carbō'' ("coal") and '' ferō'' ("bear, carry"), and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time. The first of the modern 'system' names, it was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822, based on a study of the British rock succession. The Carboniferous is often treated in North America as two geological periods, the earlier Mississippian and the later Pennsylvanian. Terrestrial animal life was well established by the Carboniferous Period. Tetrapods (four limbed vertebrates), which had originated from lobe-finned fish during the preceding Devonian, became pentadactylous in and diversified during the Carboniferous, including early amphibian line ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
