Pteridophyta is an older name for those land plants that possess a vascular conducting system and reproduce by spores rather than by seeds. Ferns, club mosses, horsetails, and whisk ferns (Psilotaceae) are the extant members, some of which have a long geologic record. The catchall group Psilophytales (redefined below) included the earliest fossil precursors. For convenience, the fossil record of pteridophytes is discussed in terms of a classification modified slightly from Foster and Gifford (1974) and Bierhorst (1971). All Classes discussed below belong to the Division Tracheophyta; the first three formerly comprised Psilophytales (Banks, 1968).
Class Rhyniopsida
The first megafossils proven to have a vascular system and resistant, trilete spores isolated from attached sporangia (spore-containing organs; see Fig. 1) lived in the Upper Silurian (Pridolian Stage) strata in Wales approximately 405–395 m yr ago. The occurrence of resistant, trilete spores as microfossils in earlier...
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Banks, H.P. (1979). Pteridophyta . In: Paleontology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31078-9_116
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31078-9_116
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