Bryophytes (liverworts and mosses) are, for the most part, relatively small plants usually not more than a few centimeters in length. They are characterized by a unique life cycle, having two alternating generations of about equal importance but differing markedly in size and morphology, one almost completely parasitic upon the other. The generation that is usually the more conspicuous (commonly called the “plant body”) is generally a green, perennial, free-living haploid gametophyte with the ability to reproduce vegetatively and also sexually by the fusion of male and female gametes produced in organs known respectively as antheridia and archegonia. The sexual process results in the formation of a diploid spore-producing generation, the sporophyte, of limited growth and life span, attached to and parasitic upon the gametophyte. The plant body of a liverwort may have a flattened, freely branched, ribbon-like form (thalloid liverworts) or a system of stems with simple leaf-like...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arnold, C. A., 1947. An Introduction to Paleobotany. New York: McGraw-Hill, 433p.
Clifford, H. T., and Cockson, I. C., 1953. Muscites yallournensis, a fossil moss capsule from Yallourn, Victoria, Bryologist, 56, 53–55.
Czeczott, H., 1959. The flora of the Baltic Amber and its age, 4, Pr. Muz. Ziemi, 4, 119–131.
Dickson, J. H., 1967. The British moss flora of the Weichselian Glacial, Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol., 2, 245–253.
Dickson, J. H., 1973. Bryophytes of the Pleistocene. London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 256p.
Harris, T. M., 1926. Note on a new method for the investigation of fossil plants, New Phytologist, 25, 58–60.
Harris, T. M., 1938, The British Rhaetic flora. London: British Mus. (Nat. Hist.) 84p.
Harris, T. M., 1961. The Yorkshire Jurassic Flora. I, Thallophyta, Pteridophyta. London: British Mus. (Nat. Hist.), 212p.
Hueber, F. M., 1961. Hepaticites devonicus, a new fossil liverwort from the Devonian of New York, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gdn., 48, 125–132.
Jeffrey, C., 1962. The origin and differentiation of the Archegoniate land-plants, Bot. Notiser., 115, 446–454.
Jovet-Ast, S., 1967. Bryophyta, in E. Boureau, ed., Traité de Paléobotanique, vol. 2, Paris: Masson et Cie, 19–186.
Jovet-Ast, S., and Huard, J., 1966. Mousses de la flore néogène d'Arjuzanx (Landes), Rev. Bryol. Lichenol., 34, 807–815.
Krutzsch, W., 1963. Atlas der mittel-und jungtertiaren dispersen Sporen-und Pollen-sowie der Mikroplankton formen des nordlichen Mitteleuropas. 2. Die Sporen der Anthocerotaceae und der Lycopodiaceae. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 141p.
Lacey, W. S., 1969. Fossil bryophytes, Biol. Rev. Cambridge Phil. Soc., 44, 189–205.
Lignier, O., 1914. Sur une Mousse houillère à structure conservée. Bull. Soc. Linneenne Normandie, 7, 128–131.
Lundblad, B., 1954. Contributions to the geological history of the Hepaticae. Fossil Marchantiales from the Rhaetic-Lissic coal mines of Skromberga (Province of Scania), Sweden, Svensk Bot. Tidskrift 48, 381–417.
Lundblad, B., 1955. Contributions to the geological history of the Hepaticae. 2. On a fossil member of the Marchantineae from the Mesozoic plant-bearing deposits near Lago San Martin, Patagonia (Lower Cretaceous), Bot. Notiser., 108, 22–39.
Mägdefrau, K., 1961. Paläobotanik, Fortschr. Bot., 23(6), 106–128.
Meyen, S. V., 1963. Mosses from the Palaeozoic of Angarida (in Russian), Piroda (Moscow), 5, 73–76.
Meyen, S. V., 1966. On the occurrence of true Mosses in the Upper Permian deposits of Southern Priuralia (in Russian), Akad. Nauk. SSSR Doklady, 166, 924–9
Nagy, E., 1968. Moss spores in Hungarian Neogene strata. Acta Bot. Acad. Sci. Hungaricae, 14, 113–132.
Neuburg, M. F., 1960. Leafy mosses from the Permian deposits of Angarida (in Russian), Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R. Trudy Geol. Inst. Leningrad, 19, 1–104.
Oschurkova, M. V., 1967. Palaeophytological stratigraphy of the Karanganda Basin (in Russian), Akad. Nauk. U.S.S.R. Geol. Inst. (V.S.E.G.E.I.), 1–152.
Parihar, N. S., 1961. An Introduction to Embryophyta, vol. 1, Bryophyta, 4th rev. ed. Allahabad: Central Book Depot, 338p.
Reissinger, A., 1950. Die “Pollenanalyse” ausgedehnt auf alle Sedimentgesteine der geologischen Vergangenheit, Palaeontographica, B, 90, 99–126.
Renault, B., and Zeiller, R., 1888. Flore fossile de Commentry, Bull. Soc. Indus. Minerale St.-Etienne, 2, 366p.
Savicz-Ljubitzkaja, L. I., and Abramov, I. I., 1959. The geological annals of Bryophyta, Rev. Bryol. Lichenol., 28, 330–342.
Steere, W. C., 1946. Cenozoic and Mesozoic Brophytes of North America, Amer. Midland Naturalist, 36, 298–324.
Straus, A., 1952. Beiträge zur Pliocänflora von Willerhausen. 3. Die niederen Pflanzengruppen bis zu den Gymnospermen, Palaeontographica, B, 93, 1–44.
Stuchilik, L., 1964. Pollen analysis of the Miocene deposits at Rypin, Acta Palaeobot., Cracow, 5, 1–111.
Sullivan, H. J., and Hibbert, F. A., 1964. Tetrapterites visensis—A new spore-bearing structure from the Lower Carboniferous, Palaeontology, 7, 64–71.
Szafran, B., 1952. Miocene mosses from Poland and the adjacent eastern territories, Biul. Pánstw. Inst. Geol. Warszawa, 68, 5–38.
Thiergart, F., 1942. Anthoceros Sporen aus jüngeren Braunkohlen, Beih. Bot. Zentralbl., 61B, 619–621.
Townrow, J. A., 1959. Two Triassic bryophytes from South Africa, J. South African Bot., 25, 1–22.
Walton, J., 1925. Carboniferous Bryophyta. I. Hepaticae, Ann. Bot. (London), 39, 563–572.
Walton, J., 1928. Carboniferous Bryophyta. 2. Hepaticae and Musci., Ann. Bot. (London), 42, 707–716.
Walton, J., 1949. A thalloid plant (cf. Hepaticites sp.) showing evidence of growth in situ from the Coal Measures at Dollar, Clackmannanshire, Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, 21, 278–280.
Watson, E. V., 1971. The Structure and Life of Bryophytes, 3rd ed. London: Hutchinson Univ. Library, 211p.
Zalessky, M. D., 1937. Sur la distinction de l'étage Bardien dans le Permien de l'Oural et sur sa flore fossile, Problemy Paleontol., 2–3, 37–101.
Cross-reference
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1979 Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Lacey, W.S. (1979). Bryophyta . In: Paleontology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31078-9_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31078-9_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-0-87933-185-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31078-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive