''Protobarinophyton'' was a genus of Silu-Devonian land plant with branching axes. It is placed in a group of early

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They ...

s (tracheophytes), the

barinophyte The barinophytes are a group of extinct vascular plants (tracheophytes). Their relationship with other vascular plants is unclear. They have been treated as the separate class Barinophytopsida, the order Barinophytales of uncertain class and as ...

s, a group that has been given various ranks and scientific names.

Phylogeny

Kenrick and Crane in 1997 placed the genus ''Protobarinophyton'' along with two species of ''Barinophyton'' in the Barinophytaceae in their

Sawdoniales The Sawdoniales are an order or plesion of extinct zosterophylls. The zosterophylls were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and share an ancestor with the living lycophytes. The group has been divided up in various ways. In t ...

, well nested within the

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 Zoster ...

s. A summary cladogram produced by Crane et al. in 2004, shows ''Protobarinophyton'' in the core of a

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

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

s, basal to the lycopsids (living and extinct clubmosses and relatives). The

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

position of the barinophytes remains disputed. Taylor et al. in 2009 considered the barinophytes to be possible lycopsids rather than zosterophylls. Hao and Xue in 2013 suggested that they were not lycopsids, instead falling between this group and the

euphyllophyte The euphyllophytes are a clade of plants within the tracheophytes (the vascular plants). The group may be treated as an unranked clade, a division under the name Euphyllophyta or a subdivision under the name Euphyllophytina. The euphyllophytes ...

References

External links

Cladogram
from Silurian plants Devonian plants Prehistoric plant genera {{devonian-plant-stub