Dispersed cuticles of putative non-vascular plants from the Lower Devonian of Britain

Abstract

Dispersed cuticles with surface ornamentation recovered from the Lower Old Red Sandstone (Gedinnian) of Hereford and Worcester, England, are described, named and placed in an artificial, morphologically based classification system. Four species of the new genus Cosmochlaina are distinguished on the nature of the ornament. The affinities of the plants covered by such cuticles remain unknown: the cuticles are named to facilitate their use in biogeographic, stratigraphic and evolutionary studies.

Classification, Cosmochlaina, fossil, Nematothallus