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Baragwanathia

Baragwanathia is the oldest vascular land plant yet to be clearly identified as such, displaying conductor tissues and spores, and is also the oldest known lycophte. Its Silurian age has been doubted because the guide fossil used to date the sediments in which it was found, the graptolite Monograptus, was in fact from the Devonian period. Further examples of Baragwanathia have nevertheless been discovered in sediments beneath Devonian strata and attributed to the Silurian on the basis of associated invertebrates. Copyright 1986 by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.P.A.,Milan. Simon and Schuster/ Fireside BOOKS "Guide to FOSSILS" .