Baragwanathia longifolia Lang & Cookson 1935 is an ancient and extinct species of vascular plant. It is known from fossils found in south-eastern Australia. It was club moss like in appearance with branched stems from 10-20 cm to several metres in length. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms (as opposed to folk taxonomy). ... Divisions Green algae Chlorophyta Charophyta Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants... Classes Lycopodiopsida - clubmosses Selaginellopsida - spikemosses Isoetopsida - quillworts The division Lycopodiophyta is a tracheophyte subdivision of the Kingdom Plantae that includes some of the most primitive of extant (living) vascular plants. ... Families Lycopodiaceae Huperziaceae The Class Lycopodiopsida includes the clubmosses. ... Baragwanathia longifolia is an ancient and extict species of vascular plant. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Divisions Non-seed-bearing plants Equisetophyta Lycopodiophyta Psilotophyta Pteridophyta Superdivision Spermatophyta Pinophyta Cycadophyta Ginkgophyta Gnetophyta Magnoliophyta The vascular plants are plants in the Kingdom Plantae (also called Viridiplantae) that have specialized tissues for conducting water. ... Families Lycopodiaceae Huperziaceae The Class Lycopodiopsida includes the clubmosses. ...

The date is somewhat uncertain, but the earliest fossils seem to date from the Late Silurian period, about 420 million years ago, making it among the earliest vascular plants known, and the earliest known with leaves. Other fossils of the same plant, including the holotype, definitely date from the Early Devonian. The plant shows some surprisingly advanced features, including the needle-like leaves or microphylls. Sporangia (spore bearing structures) are sometimes found in the axils of the leaves. The Silurian is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Ordovician period, about 443. ... A holotype is one of several possible types. ... Disambiguation: Devonian is sometimes used to refer to the Southwestern Brythonic language, and the people of the county of Devon are sometimes referred to as Devonians The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era. ... The leaves of a Beech tree A leaf with laminar structure and pinnate venation In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ... Microphylls are photosynthetic flaps of plant tissue with a solitary, unbranched vein. ... A sporangium (pl. ... The axil is the space or angle between a primary stalk or branch and a smaller branch or leaf coming off from the primary branch. ...

The fossils were first studied by Isabel Clifton Cookson. Isabel Clifton Cookson (December 25, 1893 - July 1, 1973) was an Australian botanist who specialised in palaeobotany and palynology. ...

References

Lang WH and Cookson IC (1935) On a flora, including vascular land plants, associated with Monograptus, in rocks of Silurian age, from Victoria, Australia. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B224, 421-449.

• Pictures of Baragwanathia from Victoria
• Old land plants
• The age of the earliest club mosses; the Silurian Baragwanathia flora in Victoria, Australia

Geological Magazine (March 2000), 137(2):207-209

• Contrary viewpoint on Silurian age Hueber F. M. 1992 Thoughts on the early lycopsids and zosterophylls. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 79: 474-499