Question

Which group of cone-bearing plants had a fern-like appearance but possessed the primitive type of seed and are fossil seed ferns?
A. Gnetales
B. Coniferales
C. Ginkgoales
D. Cycadofilicales or pteridospermales

Answer 1

Hint: The gymnosperms also known as naked seed plants. This means the ovules are not enclosed by any ovary wall and remain exposed both before and after fertilization. The seeds developed post-fertilization and are not covered, that means they are naked. Gymnosperm includes medium-size trees or tall trees and shrubs.

Complete answer:
- Cycadofilicales which are also known as seed ferns is an extinct gymnosperm order.
- Cycadofilicales or pteridospermales where the first seed ferns refers to several distinct phylogenetic groups of extinct seed bearing plants spermatophytes.
- The earliest Fossil evidence for plants of this type is the genus Elkinsian of the late devonian age. The florist particularly during the carboniferous and Permian periods.
- Cycadofilicales or pteridospermales declined during the mesozoic era Indian mostly disappeared by the end of the Cretaceous period.
- The group of cone bearing plants that head of fern-like appearance but possess the primitive type of seed and are known as Fossil seed ferns are cycadofilicales or pteridospermales.
- Some of them have survived into Eocene time based on the Fossil finds in Tasmania.

So, the correct answer is (D).

Note: The concept of pteridosperms goes back to the late 19th century when palaeobotanist came to realise that many carboniferous Fossil resembling fern fronds head anatomical features more reminiscent of the modern day seed plants, the cycads. In 1899 the German paleobotanist Henry potonié coined the term Cycadofilicales that means cycad ferns for such fossils suggesting that they were a group of non seed plants intermediate between the ferns and cycads.