Gosslingia sp.

By oilshale

• April 25, 2022

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Psilophytophyta Zimmermann 1930
Class: Psilophytopsida Kidston and Lang 1917
Order: Psilophytales Pia 1924
Family: incertae sedis
Genus: Gosslingia
Species: Gosslingia sp.

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Devonian
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Early
International Age: Lochkovian - Pragian

Stratigraphy

Lower Siegen Group
Pflanzenschiefer Formation

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Dimensions

Length: 20 cm
Width: 15 cm

Location

Landskrone (Hill)
Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (Town)
Rhineland-Palatinate
Germany

• devonian
• gosslingia
• lochkovian
• pragian
• siegen group
• tff-oilshale-pfl2623

Comments

Probably Gosslingia breconensis Heard 1927.

Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org.

Edwards 1970, p. 226: “In his preliminary report in 1925, Heard had called the plant Psilophyton, but he renamed it Gosslingia when he presented an account of its anatomy and morphology in 1927.”

Emended diagnosis for the genus (Edwards 1970, p. 237): "Plant rootless and leafless. Gregarious erect axes cylindrical, dichotomously and pseudomonopodially branched, arising from dichotomously branched rhizomes with rhizoids. Stems circinately coiled in apical regions: surfaces of some axes with protuberances; large projections (axillary tubercles) occur below branching points. Axes have elliptical xylem strands composed of tracheids with scalariform and reticulate pitting; protoxylem exarch, xylem surrounded by phloem; axillary tubercles with vascular strands circular in cross-section. Outer cortex composed of many layers of thick-walled elongate cells. Epidermis with stomata. Stalked sporangia borne laterally at intervals over a definite fertile region. Sporangial shape variable ranging from reniform to globose, with heavily carbonized convex margin. Spores variable in shape, with part of exine smooth and part ornamented by spini, coni and bacculae.”

Reconstruction from Edwards 1970, p. 231: 

References:
Heard, A. (1925) Psilophyton breconensis. Rep. Brit. . (Southampton), pp. 311-312.
Heard, A. (1927) On Old Red Sandstone plants showing structure from Brecon (South Wales). Quart. J. geol. Soc. Lond. 85, 195-209.
Edwards, D. (1970) Further observations on the Lower Devonian plant, Gosslingia breconensis Heard. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B258225–243 http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1970.0034.
Kenrick, P. & Edwards, D. (1988). The anatomy of Lower Devonian Gosslingia breconensis Heard based on pyritized axes, with some comments on the permineralization process. , 97(2), 95–123. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1988.tb02456.x