Corystospermaceae
| Corystospermaceae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Umkomasia macleanii reconstructed plant, Late Triassic, Molteno Formation, Umkomaas, South Africa. Including Dicroidium leaves (D), Umkomasia ovulate organ (L-P), and Pteruchus pollen organ (H-K) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Spermatophyta |
| Order: | †Corystospermales Petriella, 1981 |
| Family: | †Corystospermaceae Thomas, 1933 |
| Genera | |
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See text | |
| Synonyms | |
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Corystosperms are a group of extinct seed plants (often referred to as "seed ferns") belonging to the family Corystospermaceae (also called Umkomasiaceae) assigned to the order Corystospermales or Umkomasiales. They were first described based on fossils collected by Hamshaw Thomas from the Burnera Waterfall locality near the Umkomaas River of South Africa. Corystosperms are typified by a group of plants that bore forked Dicroidium leaves, Umkomasia cupulate ovulate structures and Pteruchus pollen organs, which grew as trees that were widespread over Gondwana during the Middle and Late Triassic. Other fossil Mesozoic seed plants with similar leaf and/or reproductive structures have also sometimes been included within the "corystosperm" concept sensu lato, such as the "doyleoids" from the Early Cretaceous of North America and Asia. A potential corystosperm sensu lato, the leaf genus Komlopteris, is known from the Eocene of Tasmania, around 53-50 million years old, over 10 million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.