Tempskya

Tempskya
Temporal range: Cretaceous Valanginian–Santonian
Tempskya fossil slab and reconstruction on display
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Subclass: Polypodiidae
Order: incertae sedis
Family: Tempskyaceae
Read et Brown ex L.C.A. Martínez
Genus: Tempskya
Corda 1845[1]

Tempskya is an extinct genus of tree fern that lived during the Cretaceous period. Fossils have been found across both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.[2] The growth habit of Tempskya was unlike that of any living fern or any other living plant, consisting of multiple conjoined dichotomous branching stems enmeshed within roots that formed a "false trunk".[3]

  1. ^ Tidwell, William D.; Hebbert, Naomi (September 1992). "Species of the Cretaceous Tree Fern Tempskya from Utah". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 153 (3): 513–528. doi:10.1086/297057. JSTOR 2995693. S2CID 55654367.
  2. ^ Gee, Carole T. (2010). "Oldest Known Dicotyledonous Lianas From the Early Late Cretaceous of Utah and New Mexico, U.S.A.". Plants in Mesozoic time : morphological innovations, phylogeny, ecosystems (illustrated ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-253-35456-3. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  3. ^ Martínez, Leandro C.A.; Olivo, Mariana S. (August 2015). "Tempskya in the Valanginian of South America (Mulichinco Formation, Neuquén Basin, Argentina) — Systematics, palaeoclimatology and palaeoecology". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 219: 116–131. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2015.04.002. hdl:11336/49538.