Talk:Lycophyte

Merge Phylum lycophyta?
The article contains only two items not already here (the number of extant species and the age of the group), and neither is referenced (although both may very well be correct). I believe that there is nothing to merge, and that Phylum lycophyta should be deleted.—Curtis Clark 03:28, 24 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I see that this was done. However, there is a problem. In the Kenrick & Crane 1997 classification, Lycophytina includes Lycopsida plus other groups, but both re-direct here. This difference needs to be recognized and sorted out. Peter coxhead (talk) 12:55, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Were there water Lycopodiophyta?
The sentence "The Lycopodiophyta are [sic] one of several classes of plants that expanded onto land during the Silurian and Devonian periods" implies that they existed as a marine, or freshwater, class before this expansion. Is there any evidence for this? "The earliest identifable Lycopodiophyta", mentioned in the previous paragraph, were land plants. Maproom (talk) 14:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The "are" is actually correct, since "-phyta" is plural ("phyton" is the singlular), but the rest of the statement is misleading. I'll fix it.--Curtis Clark (talk) 14:38, 26 November 2007 (UTC)


 * After looking at it a while, the damage extends to the following paragraph, where it mixes traits of land plants with traits of vascular plants, none of them unique to the Lycopodiophyta. I wonder whether it wasn't plagiarized from a 1960s-vintage textbook. I'll take a stab at it.--Curtis Clark (talk) 14:45, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

This is true —Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.212.25.13 (talk) 19:12, 10 March 2008 (UTC) Squirrels — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.246.56.15 (talk) 03:45, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Reformat Article
The image Lycopodiophyta spores.jpg may need to be moved for formating reasons - it is blocking part of the text on the last line of the article. -Fastily (talk) 23:28, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Better?--Curtis Clark (talk) 23:50, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Primitive
Although rendered in quotes, it is incorrect to call an organism primitive. (Primitive refers to characters, not organisms.) This should be fixed. I will fix it if no one objects.Michaplot (talk) 16:59, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Living Fossil?
How can a humungous taxon containing 1200 species be a living fossil? Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 16:19, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Lycopsid lifespans
I came across an interesting article recently, regarding the lifespan of arborescent lycopsids. This paper argues that the information at Sigillaria, ie that they had short lifespans, is false. It might be interesting for interested editors to follow the developments of this paper and possibly update the WP article. → Σ σ  ς. (Sigma) 00:34, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Distinct evolutionary line
The text "When broadly circumscribed, the lycophytes represent a line of evolution distinct from that leading to all other vascular plants, the euphyllophytes," had the opening qualification removed. I've restored it. In the Hao and Xue view (which has other support), lycophytes, interpreted narrowly, are actually closer to euphyllophytes than the line that led to zosterophylls, and the euphyllophytes do not constitute "all other vascular plants" because this circumscription of lycophytes leaves out zosterophylls. It could be changed to "The lycophytes represent a line of evolution distinct from that leading to the euphyllophytes", which is true on either circumscription. Peter coxhead (talk) 20:18, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

Etymology
Both this (Lycophyte) and Lycopsid (now forwarded to Lycopodiopsida) have a root Lyco- which is greek for "wolf", which is interesting, and it would be nice to know how this came about, but none of these entries address this. Someone must know; please step up and provide this useful information for the terminally curious. 2001:56A:F0E9:9B00:E8CA:CE9E:CF28:ACA7 (talk) 13:07, 25 February 2022 (UTC)JustSomeWikiReader
 * See lede of Lycopodiaceae: "Wolf foot" is another common name for this family due to the resemblance of either the roots or branch tips to a wolf's paw. —  Jts1882 &#124; talk 13:58, 25 February 2022 (UTC)