Caytonia

Caytonia
Temporal range: Jurassic −
Caytonia nathorstii ovulate structure, Middle Jurassic, Gristhorpe Bed, Cloughton Formation, Cayton Bay, Yorkshire.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: †Pteridospermatophyta
Order: †Caytoniales
Family: †Caytoniaceae
Genus: †Caytonia
H.H.Thomas, 1925
Species

Caytonia is an extinct genus of seed ferns.

A complete reconstruction of Caytonia nathorstii plant Retallack and Dilcher 1988

Description

Caytonia has berry-like cupules with numerous small seeds arrayed along axes

It was once thought to be an ancestor of the flowering plants, but after its method of pollination was identified, it was re-assigned as a gymnosperm.: 249–250 

Whole plant reconstructions

Different organs attributed to the same original plant can be reconstructed from co-occurrence at the same locality and from similarities in the stomatal apparatus and other anatomical peculiarities of fossilized cuticles.


References

  1. ↑ Retallack, G.J.; Dilcher, D.L. (1988). "Reconstructions of selected seed ferns". Missouri Botanical Garden Annals. 75 (3): 1010–1057. doi:10.2307/2399379. JSTOR 2399379.
  2. ↑ Elgorriaga, A.; Escapa, I. H.; Cúneo, R. (2019). "Southern Hemisphere Caytoniales: vegetative and reproductive remains from the Lonco Trapial Formation (Lower Jurassic), Patagonia". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 17 (17): 1477–1495. doi:10.1080/14772019.2018.1535456. hdl:11336/117441. S2CID 92287804.
  3. ↑ Chaloner, W. G. (1985). "Thomas Maxwell Harris. 8 January 1903 – 1 May 1983". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 31: 228–260. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1985.0009. S2CID 72170558.