Oricilla was a genus of Early Devonian land plant with branching axes.[2] Fossils have been found from the Pragian to the Emsian (411 to 393 million years ago).[1]

Oricilla
Temporal range: Early Devonian[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Lycophytes
Plesion: Zosterophylls
Order: incertae sedis
Family: Gosslingiaceae
Genus: Oricilla

A cladogram published in 2004 by Crane et al. places Oricilla in the core of a paraphyletic stem group of broadly defined "zosterophylls", basal to the lycopsids (living and extinct clubmosses and relatives).[3]

lycophytes
       

† Hicklingia

 †basal groups 

Adoketophyton, Discalis, Distichophytum (=Rebuchia), Gumuia, Huia, Zosterophyllum myretonianum, Z. llanoveranum, Z. fertile

 †'core' zosterophylls

Zosterophyllum divaricatum, Tarella, Oricilla, Gosslingia, Hsua, Thrinkophyton, Protobarinophyton, Barinophyton obscurum, B. citrulliforme, Sawdonia, Deheubarthia, Konioria, Anisophyton, Serrulacaulis, Crenaticaulis

 †basal groups 

Nothia, Zosterophyllum deciduum

lycopsids

extant and extinct members

Hao and Xue in 2013 used the absence of terminal sporangia to place the genus in the paraphyletic order Gosslingiales, a group of zosterophylls considered to have indeterminate growth, with fertile branches generally showing circinate vernation (initially curled up).[4] Kenrick and Crane in 1997 also placed the genus in the family Gosslingiaceae, but they place this family in the order Sawdoniales.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Hao & Xue (2013), p. 329.
  2. ^ Boyce, C.K. (2008). "How green was Cooksonia? The importance of size in understanding the early evolution of physiology in the vascular plant lineage". Paleobiology. 34 (2): 179–194. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2008)034[0179:HGWCTI]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0094-8373.
  3. ^ Crane, P.R.; Herendeen, P.; Friis, E.M. (2004). "Fossils and plant phylogeny". American Journal of Botany. 91 (10): 1683–99. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1683. PMID 21652317.
  4. ^ Hao & Xue (2013), pp. 52–54.
  5. ^ Kenrick, Paul & Crane, Peter R. (1997). The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants: A Cladistic Study. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-56098-730-7.

Bibliography

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