Iridopteridales is an order of the extinct

cladoxylopsid The cladoxylopsids are an extinct group of plants related to ferns and sphenopsids. They had a central trunk, from the top of which several lateral branches were attached. Fossils of these plants originate in the Middle Devonian to Early Carb ...

s. It contains the genus ''

Ibyka ''Ibyka'' is an extinct genus of Iridopteridales, and a possible ancestor to Equisetopsida, horsetails. The name comes from the poet Ibycus, Ibykos because the discovery of the fossil was due to the activity of construction cranes during the co ...

'' which is a possible ancestor of the

horsetails ''Equisetum'' (; horsetail) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. ''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Equisetidae, which f ...

.Thomas N. Taylor, Edith L. Taylor, Michael Krings: Paleobotany. The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants . Second Edition, Academic Press 2009, , p. 398-400.

References

Fern orders Prehistoric plant orders {{paleobotany-stub