''Baiera'' is a genus of prehistoric

gymnosperm The gymnosperms ( ; ) are a group of woody, perennial Seed plant, seed-producing plants, typically lacking the protective outer covering which surrounds the seeds in flowering plants, that include Pinophyta, conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and gnetoph ...

s in the order Ginkgoales. It is one of the oldest fossil foliage types of Ginkgoales, and is related to the genera ''

Ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, , and ''Ginkgo'' is n ...

'' and ''

Ginkgoites ''Ginkgoites'' is a genus of extinct plants belonging to Ginkgoaceae. Fossils of these plants have been found around the globe during the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, with fossils also known from the Paleogene. The name was created as a form g ...

''. Fossils of ''Baiera'' are found worldwide, and have been known from the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

to the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Description

''Baiera'' species are characterized by fan-shaped leaves,Pott, Christian & Burgh, J. & van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, Johanna. (2016). New Ginkgophytes from the Upper Triassic–Lower Cretaceous of Spitsbergen and Edgeøya (Svalbard, Arctic Norway): The History of Ginkgoales on Svalbard. International Journal of Plant Sciences. 177. 175-197. 10.1086/684194. are deeply lobed into four segments, deeply incised into slender segments, and are distinguished from '' Sphenobaiera'' by a petiole. ''B. africana'' is characterized by its symmetrical and triangular leaves.

Classification

Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Braun first introduced the name ''Baiera'' in 1843 to refer to fossils in Germany that he interpreted as ginkgophytes. In 1936, Carl Rudolf Florin used ''Baiera'' to refer to leaves with a distinct stalk or petiole and with a semicircular or triangular shape.

Placement of ''Baiera''

Gerd Dietl and Günter Schweigert (2011) place ''Baiera'' in the family

Ginkgoaceae The Ginkgoaceae is a family of gymnosperms which appeared during the Mesozoic Era, of which the only extant representative is ''Ginkgo biloba'', which is for this reason sometimes regarded as a living fossil. Formerly, however, there were several ...

, while a 2015 classification by Andriy Novikoff and Beata Barabasz-Krasny places it in the Karkeniaceae.

References

Ginkgophyta Prehistoric gymnosperm genera Fossil taxa described in 1843 {{paleo-gymnosperm-stub