Yunia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Peter coxhead (talk | contribs) at 22:21, 28 January 2011. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Yunia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Subkingdom:
(unranked):
(unranked):
Genus:
Yunia

Yunia is a genus of extinct vascular plants from the Early Devonian (the Pragian stage, around 410 million years ago). The leafless plant consisted of spiny stems which branched dichotomously in a cruciate arrangement. Each stem contained vascular tissue with one or two strands of protoxylem. The spore-forming organs (sporangia) were elongated. The spores had a relatively smooth sculptural pattern and were trilete (i.e. each spore has three lines on it resulting from its formation in a tetrahedral set of four spores).[1]

In 2004, Crane et al. published a simplified cladogram for the polysporangiophytes in which Yunia is basal to the lycophytes (clubmosses and relatives).[2] It had previously been placed in the 'trimerophytes' (a group now thought to be paraphyletic) which were considered to have given rise to all the other vascular plants except the lycophytes.[3]

References

  1. ^ Taylor, T.N.; Taylor, E.L.; Krings, M. (2009), Paleobotany The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants (2nd ed.), Amsterdam; Boston: Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-12-373972-8 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help), p. 262
  2. ^ Crane, P.R.; Herendeen, P.; Friis, E.M. (2004), "Fossils and plant phylogeny", American Journal of Botany, 91: 1683–99, doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1683, retrieved 2011-01-27 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Taylor, Taylor & Krings 2009, p. 259ff.