Yunia

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title: "Yunia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["early-devonian-plants", "zosterophylls", "prehistoric-lycophyte-genera"] description: "Extinct genus of spore-bearing plants" topic_path: "general/early-devonian-plants" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Extinct genus of spore-bearing plants ::

| fossil_range = | image = Yunia dichotoma reconstruccion.jpg | image_upright = 0.7 | image_caption = Reconstruction of Yunia dichotoma according to its description. | taxon = Yunia | authority = S.G.Hao & C.B.Beck (1991) | type_species = Yunia dichotoma | type_species_authority = S.G.Hao & C.B.Beck (1991) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision =

• †Yunia dichotoma S.G.Hao & C.B.Beck (1991)
• †Yunia guangnania S.G.Hao & Xue (2013)

Yunia is a genus of extinct vascular plants from the Early Devonian (Pragian or Siegenian stage, around ). It was first described from the Posongchong Formation of Yunnan, China. The leafless plant consisted of spiny stems, some 2 to wide, which branched dichotomously at wide angles in a cruciate arrangement. Each stem contained vascular tissue with one or two strands of protoxylem. The spore-forming organs (sporangia) were elongated and borne on short stalks. The spores had a relatively smooth sculptural pattern and were trilete (i.e. each spore has three lines on it resulting from its formation in a tetrahedral set of four spores).

In 2004, Crane et al. published a simplified cladogram for the polysporangiophytes in which Yunia is basal to the lycophytes (clubmosses and relatives). It had previously been placed in the "trimerophytes" (a group now thought to be paraphyletic), which were considered to have given rise to all the other vascular plants except the lycophytes. | label1=tracheophytes | 1= Hao and Xue in 2013 considered the genus as a questionable zosterophyll.

References

References

1. (1991). "''Yunia dichotoma'', a Lower Devonian plant from Yunnan, China". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology.
2. (2009). "Paleobotany : The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants". Academic Press.
3. (2004). "Fossils and plant phylogeny". American Journal of Botany.
4. {{Harvnb. Taylor. Taylor. Krings. 2009
5. (2013). "The early Devonian Posongchong flora of Yunnan: a contribution to an understanding of the evolution and early diversification of vascular plants". Science Press.

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