Pseudobornia

Pseudobornia is a genus of plants known only from fossils found from the Upper Devonian.[1] It contains a single species Pseudobornia ursina, and is the earliest fossil assigned with certainty to the Equisetopsida.

Pseudobornia
Temporal range: Late Devonian[1]
↓
Pseudobornia ursina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Class: Polypodiopsida
Subclass: Equisetidae
Order: †Pseudoborniales
Genus: †Pseudobornia
Nathorst.
Species:
†P. ursina
Binomial name
†Pseudobornia ursina
Nathorst.

The first fossils of Pseudobornia were collected by Johan Gunnar Andersson on Bear Island in the 1890s.[2] Hans-Joachim Schweitzer, a paleobotanist, was the first to interpret the fossils as belonging to a large tree, based on additional fossils discovered in Alaska in the 1960s.[3][4]

The probable relationships within Equisetidae are shown in the cladogram below. The position where Ibyka would be has been added.[5]

 
 

†Ibyka(?)

 
 
 

†Pseudobornia ursina

 
 
 

†Sphenophyllales

 
 
 

†Archeocalamitaceae

 
 
 

†Calamitaceae

 
 
 

Equisetaceae

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References
  1. Taylor, Thomas N.; Edith L. Taylor. (1993). The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. pp. 305–307. ISBN 0-13-651589-4.
  2. "Paleontology: World's First Tall Tree". Time. June 16, 1967.
  3. Schweitzer, H.-J. (1967). "Die Oberdevon-Flora der Bäreninsel I. Pseudobornia ursina Nathorst". Palaeontographica. 120B: 116–137.
  4. Schweitzer, H.-J. (1967). "Ein Riesenschachtelhalm aus dem Oberdevon, Pseudobornia ursina". Umschau in Wissenschaft und Technik. 6: 196.
  5. "Introduction to the Sphenophyta". University of California Museum of Paleontology. Retrieved 31 July 2011.


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