''Gosslingia'' was a genus of

Early Devonian The Early Devonian is the first of three Epoch (geology), epochs comprising the Devonian period, corresponding to the Lower Devonian Series (stratigraphy), series. It lasted from and began with the Lochkovian Stage , which was followed by the Pr ...

land plant with branching axes. Fossils have been from the

Lochkovian The Lochkovian is one of three faunal stages in the Early Devonian Epoch. It lasted from 419.2 ± 3.2 million years ago to 410.8 ± 2.8 million years ago. It marked the beginning of the Devonian Period, and was followed by the Pragian Stage. It is ...

to the

Pragian The Pragian is one of three faunal stages in the Early Devonian Epoch. It lasted from 410.8 ± 2.8 million years ago to 407.6 ± 2.8 million years ago. It was preceded by the Lochkovian Stage and followed by the Emsian Stage. The most important ...

, . A cladogram published in 2004 by Crane et al. places ''Gosslingia'' in the core of a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

stem group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...

of broadly defined "

zosterophyll The zosterophylls are a group of extinct land plants that first appeared in the Silurian period. The taxon was first established by Banks in 1968 as the subdivision Zosterophyllophytina; they have since also been treated as the division Zostero ...

s", basal to the lycopsids (living and extinct clubmosses and relatives). Hao and Xue in 2013 used the absence of terminal

sporangia A sporangium (from Late Latin, ; : sporangia) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a unicellular organism, single cell or can be multicellular organism, multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungus, fungi, and many ot ...

to place the genus in the family

Gosslingiaceae Gosslingiaceae is a family of extinct zosterophylls. The zosterophylls were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and are considered to share an ancestor with the living lycophytes. The family is variously placed in the order Sa ...

in the

order

Gosslingiales Gosslingiales is an Order (biology), order of extinct zosterophylls. The zosterophylls were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and share an ancestor with the Lycopodiopsida, living lycophytes. The group has been divided up in ...

, a group considered to have indeterminate growth, with fertile branches generally showing circinate vernation (initially curled up). Kenrick and Crane in 1997 also placed the genus in the family

, but they place this family in the order

Sawdoniales The Sawdoniales are an Order (biology), order or plesion of extinct zosterophylls. The zosterophylls were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and share an ancestor with the Lycopodiopsida, living lycophytes. The group has been d ...

References

External links

Cladogram
from Zosterophylls Prehistoric lycophyte genera Devonian plants Emsian life Pragian life {{paleo-lycophyte-stub