Lyginopteris

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.

Lyginopteris

Retallack · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
LyginopteridaceaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Streptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 339.9 Mya to 316.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 358.86 Mya to 298.9 Mya.

Devonian — about 0 of 50 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 50 of 50 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 50 occurrences360–358 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences358–356 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences356–354 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences354–352 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences352–350 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences350–348 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences348–346 Mya — about 1 occurrence346–343 Mya — about 1 occurrence343–341 Mya — about 1 occurrence341–339 Mya — about 1 occurrence339–337 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences337–335 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences335–333 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences333–331 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences331–329 Mya — about 2 occurrences329–327 Mya — about 3 occurrences327–325 Mya — about 3 occurrences325–323 Mya — about 3 occurrences323–321 Mya — about 3 occurrences321–318 Mya — about 4 occurrences318–316 Mya — about 10 occurrences316–314 Mya — about 2 occurrences314–312 Mya — about 1 occurrence312–310 Mya — about 1 occurrence310–308 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences308–306 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences306–304 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences304–302 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences302–300 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences300–298 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences339.9 Mya316.9 Mya360 Mya298 Mya

50 occurrences of Lyginopteris on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

50 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Pottsville — 33.82°N, 87.42°WPottsville — 33.00°N, 87.00°WPottsville — 33.81°N, 87.17°WOstrava — 49.85°N, 18.43°EKozlu — 41.45°N, 31.82°EAlacaagzi — 41.45°N, 31.82°ECrab Orchard Mountain — 34.55°N, 85.50°W

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The named rock units Lyginopteris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lyginopteris and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Lyginopteris and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

168 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 22 sites for Lyginopteris, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

9 references

Each of the 50 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Lyginopteris

Credit
Retallack
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lyginopteris was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itLyginopteridaceae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Potonie 1897