Noeggerathiales is a now-

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

order of

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...

s. The fossil range of the order extends from the

Upper Carboniferous Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both * ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found f ...

to the upper

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

(

Lopingian The Lopingian is the uppermost series/last epoch of the Permian. It is the last epoch of the Paleozoic. The Lopingian was preceded by the Guadalupian and followed by the Early Triassic. The Lopingian is often synonymous with the informal terms l ...

). Due to gaps in the

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

, the group is incompletely known and poorly defined, and their taxonomic status and position in the plant kingdom are uncertain. The Noeggerathiales have been proposed in the evolutionary scheme in two remotely related groups of vascular plants, the

Pteropsida Pteropsida is a subdivision of vascular plants that is no longer in use. It included all flowering plants and ferns and was divided into '' Filicinae'', ''Gymnospermae'', and ''Angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruit ...

and the

Sphenopsida Equisetidae is one of the four subclasses of Polypodiopsida (ferns), a group of vascular plants with a fossil record going back to the Devonian. They are commonly known as horsetails. They typically grow in wet areas, with whorls of needle-like ...

. Noeggerathiales have been previously linked to

horsetails ''Equisetum'' (; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of ferns, which reproduce by spores rather than seeds. ''Equisetum'' is a " living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass ...

and

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s, but are currently believed to be

progymnosperm The progymnosperms are an extinct group of woody, spore-bearing plants that is presumed to have evolved from the trimerophytes, and eventually gave rise to the seed plants, gymnosperms, ancestral to gymnosperms, acrogymnosperms and angiosperms (f ...

s. Noeggerathiales had a

tree fern The tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae (scaly tree ...

like appearance, with leaves sprouting from the top of an unbranched trunk. They were primarily confined to the wet tropical regions where there was no frost. Noeggerathiales are rare in European and North American floras, but are common components of Cathaysian Chinese floras. One form, ''Paratingia wuhaia'', resembled a small fern reaching from two to several meters in height.Ancient noeggerathialean reveals the seed plant sister group diversified alongside the primary seed plant radiation
/ref>

References

External links

The Taxonomicon

Prehistoric plant orders Carboniferous plants Permian plants {{permian-plant-stub