Rhyniophytina

Rhyniophytina is a subdivision of extinct early vascular plants that are considered to be similar to
Rhyniophytina
the genus Rhynia, found in the Early Devonian (around 419 to 393 million years ago). Sources vary
in the name and rank used for this group, some treating it as the class Rhyniopsida, others as the Temporal range: Early Devonian [1]
division Rhyniophyta. The informal term rhyniophytes is also used. The first definition of the PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K PgN
Rhyniophytina was by Banks,[2]:8 since when there have been many redefinitions,[1]:96-97 including
by Banks himself. "As a result, the Rhyniophytina have slowly dissolved into a heterogeneous
collection of plants ... the group contains only one species on which all authors agree: the type species
Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii".[1]:94 When defined very broadly, the group consists of plants with
dichotomously branched, naked aerial axes ("stems") with terminal spore-bearing structures
(sporangia).[3]:227

Contents
Definitions
Taxonomy
Rhynie flora
See also
References
External links Reconstruction of Rhynia gwynne-
vaughanii[1]

Scientific classification
Definitions
Clade: Polysporangiophytes
The group was described as a subdivision of the division Tracheophyta by Harlan Parker Banks in
1968 under the name Rhyniophytina. The original definition was: "plants with naked (lacking
Clade: Tracheophytes
emergences), dichotomizing axes bearing sporangia that are terminal, usually fusiform and may Subdivision: †Rhyniophytina
dehisce longitudinally; they are diminutive plants and, in so far as is known, have a small terete H.P.Banks (1968)
xylem strand with a central protoxylem."[2]:8,[4] With this definition, they are polysporangiophytes,
Synonyms
since their sporophytes consisted of branched stems bearing sporangia (spore-forming organs). They
lacked leaves or true roots but did have simple vascular tissue. Informally, they are often called
Rhyniopsida Krysht. (1925)
rhyniophytes or, as mentioned below, rhyniophytoids.
Rhyniophyta Cronq., Takht. &
However, as originally circumscribed, the group was found not to be monophyletic since some of its
Zimmermann (1966)
members are now known to lack vascular tissue. The definition that seems to be used most often now
is that of D. Edwards and D.S. Edwards: "plants with smooth axes, lacking well-defined spines or paratracheophytes
leaves, showing a variety of branching patterns that may be isotomous, anisotomous,
pseudomonopodial or adventitious. Elongate to globose sporangia were terminal on main axes or on lateral systems showing limited branching. It seems
probable that the xylem, comprising a solid strand of tracheids, was centrarch."[5]:216 However, Edwards and Edwards also decided to include
rhyniophytoids, plants which "look like rhyniophytes, but cannot be assigned unequivocally to that group because of inadequate anatomical
preservation", but exclude plants likeAglaophyton and Horneophyton which definitely do not possess tracheids.[5]:214-215

In 1966, slightly before Banks created the subdivision, the group was treated as a division under the name Rhyniophyta.[6] Taylor et al. in their book
Paleobotany use Rhyniophyta as a formal taxon,[3]:1028 but with a loose definition: plants "characterized by dichotomously branched, naked aerial axes
with terminal sporangia".[3]:227 They thus include under "other rhyniophytes" plants apparently without vascular tissue.
[3]:246ff

[7]
More recently the nameparatracheophytes has been suggested, to distinguish such plants from 'true' tracheophytes or eutracheophytes.

Taxonomy
Not all authors agree on the hierarchy above or below the Rhyniophytina,[1]:96-97 or even use the lower levels of the hierarchy when writing taxonomic
papers. The following are some of the names which may be used:
 Division Rhyniophyta Cronq., Takht. & Zimmermann (1966)[3]:227ff,1028,[6]

Subdivision RhyniophytinaBanks (1968)[2]:8,[4]

Class Rhyniopsida Kryshtofovich (1925)[8]

Order Rhyniales Němejc (1950)[9]

Family Rhyniaceae Kidston & Lang (1920)[10]:616

Currently, Rhyniaceae includes thegenera Huvenia, Rhynia, and Stockmansella,[1] all from the Devonian.

It has been suggested that the poorly preserved Eohostimella, found in deposits of Early Silurian age (Llandovery, around 440 to 430 million years ago),
may be a rhyniophyte.[11]

In 2004, Crane et al. published a cladogram for the polysporangiophytes in which the Rhyniaceae are shown as the sister group of all other tracheophytes
(vascular plants).[12] The other former "rhyniophytes", such as Horneophyton and Aglaophyton, are placed outside the tracheophyte clade, as they did not
possess true vascular tissue (in particular did not have tracheids). However, both Horneophyton and Aglaophyton have been tentatively classified as
[13]
tracheophytes in at least one recent cladistic analysis of Early Devonian land plants.

[12]
Partial cladogram by Crane et al. including the more certain rhyniophytes:

Horneophytopsida

Aglaophyton

Huvenia

polysporangiophytes Rhyniaceae Rhynia

Tracheophyta Stockmansella

Lycopodiophytina and stem groups

Eutracheophytes
Euphyllophytina

(See the Polysporangiophyte article for the expanded cladogram.)

Rhynie flora
The general term "rhyniophytes" or "rhyniophytoids" is sometimes used for the assemblage of plants found in the Rhynie chert Lagerstätte - rich fossil
beds in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and roughly coeval sites with similar flora. Used in this way, these terms refer to a floristic assemblage of more or less
related early land plants, not a taxon. Though the rhyniophytes are well represented, plants with simpler anatomy, like Aglaophyton, are also common;
there are also more complex plants, likeAsteroxylon, which has a very early form of leaves.[14]

See also
Polysporangiophytes

References
1. Kenrick, Paul & Crane, Peter R. (1997),The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants: A Cladistic Study
, Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press,ISBN 978-1-56098-730-7
2. In: Andrews, H.N.; Kasper, A. & Mencher, E. (1968), "Psilophyton forbesii, a New Devonian Plant from Northern Maine",Bulletin of the
Torrey Botanical Club, 95 (1): 1–11
3. Taylor, T.N.; Taylor, E.L. & Krings, M. (2009).Paleobotany, The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants (2nd ed.). Amsterdam; Boston:
Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-373972-8.
4. Banks, H.P. (1968), "The early history of land plants",in Drake, E.T., Evolution and Environment: A Symposium Presented on the
Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Foundation of Peabody Museum of Natural History atale Y University, New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, pp. 73–107
5. Edwards, D.; Edwards, D.S. (1986), "A reconsideration of the Rhyniophytina Banks",
in Spicer, R.A.; Thomas, B.A., Systematic and
taxonomic approaches in palaeobotany, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 199–218
 6. Cronquist, A.; Takhtajan, A. & Zimmermann,W. (1966), "On the higher Taxa of Embryobionta",Taxon, 2 (4): 129–134, JSTOR 1217531
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/1217531)
7. Gonez, P. & Gerrienne, P. (2010a), "A New Definition and a Lectotypification of the GenusCooksonia Lang 1937", International Journal
of Plant Sciences, 171 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1086/648988 (https://doi.org/10.1086/648988)
8. As Rhyniales in: Yakovlev, Nikolai (editor) (1925).Учебник палеонтологии (Uchebnik paleontologii; Textbook of Palaeontology, 3rd
edition only). Leningrad-Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdateľstvo. pp. 408–409.
9. Němejc, F. (1950), "The natural systematic of plants in the light of the present palaeontological documents",Sborník Národního Muzea
v Praze: Řada B, Přírodni vědy, 6 (3): 55
10. Kidston, R. & Lang, W.H. (1920), "On Old Red Sandstone plants showing structure, from the Rhynie Chert Bed, Aberdeenshire. Part II.
Additional notes on Rhynia Gwynne-Vaughani, Kidston and Lang; with descriptions ofRhynia major, n.sp., and Hornea Lignieri, n.g.,
n.sp.", Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 52 (3): 603–627
11. Niklas, K.J. (1979), "An Assessment of Chemical Features for the Classification of Plant Fossils",
Taxon, 28 (5/6): 505,
doi:10.2307/1219787 (https://doi.org/10.2307/1219787), JSTOR 1219787 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1219787)
12. Crane, P.R.; Herendeen, P. & Friis, E.M. (2004), "Fossils and plant phylogeny"(http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/10/1683),
American Journal of Botany, 91 (10): 1683–99, doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1683(https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.91.10.1683), PMID 21652317 (h
ttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21652317), retrieved 2011-01-27
13. Hao, Shougang; Xue, Jinzhuang (2013).The Early Devonian Posongchong Flora of Y unnan - A Contribution to an Understanding of the
Evolution and Early Diversification of Vascular Plants. Beijing: Science Press. pp. 244–245.ISBN 978-7-03-036616-0.
14. Kidston, R. & Lang, W.H. (1920), "On Old Red Sandstone plants showing structure, from the Rhynie Chert Bed, Aberdeenshire. Part III.
Asteroxylon mackiei, Kidston and Lang.", Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 52 (3): 643–680

External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20071028153446/http://www
.palaeos.com/Plants/Rhyniophytes/index.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20070423195457/http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/project/dendrology/index/plantae/vascular/vascular
.html
Cladogram from Crane, Herendeen & Friis 2004

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