Casterlorum is a genus of liverwort in the family Leiosporocerotaceae, named for the paleontologist Ken Caster, known from the fossil species Casterlorum crispum. It was described from the Douglas Lake Member of the Lenoir Limestone near Douglas Dam, Tennessee, in rock dated to the Darriwilian stage of the Middle Ordovician period. The fossil preserves a wide, repeatedly forking gametophyte body with dark branching lines interpreted as mucilage canals hosting cyanobacterial symbionts, along with distinguishing features of its sporophyte, making it one of the oldest land plant fossils known from North America.
Facts
Classification
Living or Extinct Taxonomic Rank Sources
1. Catalogue of Life
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life- Living or Extinct: No
- Taxonomic Rank: Genus
View the Source Douglas Lake Member (Wikipedia)
In Group: Liverwort Genera (Marchantiophyta), Section: FossilsQuote, In Group: Liverwort Genera (Marchantiophyta), Section: Fossils
he claimed finding compression fossils of a variety of non-vascular land plants
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