Lyginopteris

Lyginopteris
Temporal range: Late Carboniferous
Permineralized stem Lyginopteris oldhamiana from coal ball of Late Carboniferous Six Inch Coal in Hough Hill Colliery near Stalybridge, England
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: †Pteridospermatophyta
Class: †Lyginopteridopsida
Order: †Lyginopteridales
Family: †Lyginopteridaceae
Genus: †Lyginopteris
(Binney) Potonie 1899
Species
  • Lyginopteris austriaca
  • Lyginopteris heterangeoides
  • Lyginopteris lacunosa
  • Lyginopteris oldhamiana
  • Lyginopteris royalii

Lyginopteris is a genus of Late Carboniferous seed fern stems with a very distinctive outer cortex of sclereids forming a pattern in cross section like Roman numerals on a clock face, often called a Sparganum cortex. Some Lyginopteris were parasitized by water molds, such as the Combresomyces.[1]

  1. ^ Strullu-Derrien, C.; Kenrick, P.; Rioult, J. P.; Strullu, D. G. (2010). "Evidence of parasitic Oomycetes (Peronosporomycetes) infecting the stem cortex of the Carboniferous seed fern Lyginopteris oldhamia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 278 (1706): 675–680. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1603. PMC 3030852. PMID 20843846.