Biology:Salopella

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Short description: Extinct genus of Devonian plants

Salopella
Temporal range: Late Silurian to Early Devonian
Salopella.jpg
Rough 3D rendering of Salopella. Scale cube: 1 mm
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Stem group: Rhyniophytes
Genus: Salopella
Edwards & Richardson 1974[1]
Species
  • S. caespitosa S. allenii
  • Edwards & Richardson 1974 Tims & Chambers 1984
  • Tims & Chambers 1984 S. marcensis
  • S. brasiliana Fanning et al. 1992
  • S. australis Mussa et al. 1996
  • Dou Yawei & Sun Zhehua 1983 S. xinjiangensis

Salopella is a form genus for small fossil plants of Late Silurian to Early Devonian age. The diagnostic characters are naked axes branching isotomously, terminating in fusiform sporangia.[1] The sporangia are unbranched, but in at least the type species the axes seem to branch just under the sporangia.[2] It differs from the similar form genus Tortilicaulis in that the sporangia do not have spirally arranged cells, and from other similar form genera such as Cooksonia, Uskiella and Tarrantia in the shape of the sporangia.

Species have been reported from Wales, Xinjiang, Brazil and Australia . Most species are based on very small fragments of the tips of plants, the exceptions being the two Australian species which preserve rather more of the plant. The relationships of the genus are not clear because many anatomical details remain unknown. A useful summary table of what data is known was given by Edwards et al.[3] It has been considered to be a member of the rhyniophytes.[4][5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Template:Cite palaeontology
  2. Edwards, D.; Fanning, U. (1985). "Evolution and environment in the late Silurian-early Devonian: the rise of the pteridophytes.". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B 309 (1138): 147–165. doi:10.1098/rstb.1985.0076. Bibcode1985RSPTB.309..147E. 
  3. Edwards, D.; Fanning, U.; Richardson J.B. (1994). "Lower Devonian coalified sporangia from Shropshire: Salopella Edwards & Richardson and Tortilicaulis Edwards". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 116 (2): 89–110. doi:10.1006/bojl.1994.1055. 
  4. Gensel, P. (1980). "Devonian in situ spores: a survey and discussion". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 30: 101–106. doi:10.1016/0034-6667(80)90009-3. 
  5. Hao, Shougang; Xue, Jinzhuang (2013). The early Devonian Posongchong flora of Yunnan: a contribution to an understanding of the evolution and early diversification of vascular plants. Beijing: Science Press. p. 329. ISBN 978-7-03-036616-0. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269875285. Retrieved 2019-10-25. 

Wikidata ☰ Q16992388 entry