Edwards established Aglaophyton for the plant formerly called Rhynia major after re-examining new and historical material; the profile preserves the paper's refusal to assign the genus to a living higher group.
claim:taxon:aglaophyton:taxonomyAglaophyton
Aglaophyton major is represented here by Edwards's re-examination of new and historical Rhynie-chert material, which established the genus and reconstructed its axes and conducting strand without assigning it to a living higher group.
Represented range412.8–410.2 Ma
Content packageearly-land-plants
PBDBtxn:55149
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
The profiled Aglaophyton major material is from the Rhynie Chert of Aberdeenshire, Scotland; this named deposit does not establish the genus's complete geographic distribution or centre of origin.
claim:taxon:aglaophyton:biogeographyThe Aglaophyton reconstruction includes extensive stands of decumbent axes with upright branches, but the fossil study did not measure carbon acquisition, population breadth or a genus-wide ecological guild.
claim:taxon:aglaophyton:ecologyAglaophyton major was reconstructed with decumbent axes, dichotomously branching upright axes and terminal sporangia; its three-zoned conducting strand lacks the differential wall thickenings used to diagnose tracheids.
claim:taxon:aglaophyton:morphologyThe displayed 412.8–410.2 Ma interval is the 411.5 ± 1.3 Ma U–Pb uncertainty window used for the represented Rhynie-chert material; it is not a global Aglaophyton first appearance, last appearance or lineage duration.
claim:taxon:aglaophyton:fossil-rangeKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- Aglaophyton major, a non-vascular land-plant from the Devonian Rhynie ChertEdwards, D.S. · 1986 · DOI 10.1111/j.1095-8339.1986.tb01020.x
- A high-precision U–Pb age constraint on the Rhynie Chert Konservat-Lagerstätte: time scale and other implicationsParry, S.F.; Noble, S.R.; Crowley, Q.G.; Wellman, C.H. · 2011 · DOI 10.1144/0016-76492010-043
- Open Tree of Life web servicesOpenTreeOfLife Project
- The Paleobiology Database application programming interfacePeters, S.E.; McClennen, M. · 2016 · DOI 10.1017/pab.2015.39
- Denormalized occurrence and taxon tables of the Paleobiology DatabaseThe Paleobiology Database Community; Kocsis, Á.T. · 2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21620933