Pallaviciniites

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Pallaviciniites
Temporal range: Frasnian
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Marchantiophyta
Class: Jungermanniopsida
Order: Metzgeriales
Genus: Pallaviciniites
Schuster 1966 (Hueber, 1961)
Species:
P. devonicus
Binomial name
Pallaviciniites devonicus
Schuster 1966 (Hueber, 1961)
Synonyms
  • Hepaticites Hueber 1961[1]

The lowermost Upper Devonian fossil Pallaviciniites was for a time the oldest known liverwort until Metzgeriothallus was recovered from earlier Devonian strata.[2]

It had a central axis, and bifurcated at its tips; similar fossils have been found in younger strata through to the Pleistocene.[3] With the exception of its elongated axial conducting (non-vascular) cells, the thallus was a single cell thick.[4] It had a serrated margin.[1]

Prior to its discovery, the oldest known liverworts dated to the Lower Carboniferous.[3]

References