Metzgeriothallus sharonae supports a liverwort body-fossil assignment, while older Ordovician spore masses only suggest and do not establish Marchantiophyta affinity.
claim:taxon:marchantiophyta:taxonomyMarchantiophyta
Metzgeriothallus sharonae provides a Middle Devonian liverwort body-fossil anchor, while Ordovician spore evidence remains a qualified affinity rather than a crown assignment.
Represented range387.7–Present Ma
Content packageearly-land-plants
PBDBtxn:55120
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
The profiled body fossils come from Givetian eastern New York and do not establish the phylum’s global origin area or complete fossil distribution.
claim:taxon:marchantiophyta:biogeographyThe thalloid plant is interpreted as a small terrestrial primary producer; exact substrate, moisture regime and life history were not directly observed.
claim:taxon:marchantiophyta:ecologyMetzgeriothallus specimens preserve bifurcating thalloid gametophytes with a medial costa and an associated sporophyte capsule.
claim:taxon:marchantiophyta:morphologyThe profile uses the Givetian body-fossil record as its evidence-linked older bound; older cryptospores are not silently promoted to crown-liverwort fossils.
claim:taxon:marchantiophyta:fossil-rangeKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- Earth's oldest liverworts—Metzgeriothallus sharonae sp. nov. from the Middle Devonian (Givetian) of eastern New York, USAVanAller Hernick, L.; Landing, E.; Bartowski, K.E. · 2008 · DOI 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2007.09.002
- 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
- Fragments of the earliest land plantsWellman, C.H.; Osterloff, P.L.; Mohiuddin, U. · 2003 · DOI 10.1038/nature01884