Asteroxylon mackiei
E549113
Asteroxylon mackiei is an early Devonian vascular land plant known from exceptionally well-preserved fossils that provide key insights into the evolution of plant structure and terrestrialization.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Asteroxylon mackiei canonical | 3 |
| Asteroxylon | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5631750 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Asteroxylon mackiei Context triple: [Rhynie Chert fossil locality, containsFossilsOf, Asteroxylon mackiei]
-
A.
Horneophyton lignieri
Horneophyton lignieri is an early Devonian land plant known from the Rhynie Chert, notable for its simple vascular structure and significance in understanding the evolution of terrestrial flora.
-
B.
Aglaophyton
Aglaophyton is an extinct early land plant from the Early Devonian period, known for its simple, leafless branching stems and importance in understanding the evolution of vascular plants.
-
C.
Rhynia
Rhynia is an extinct genus of simple, leafless vascular plants from the Early Devonian period that represents one of the earliest well-preserved examples of land plant evolution.
-
D.
Dickinsonia
Dickinsonia is an extinct, soft-bodied, segmented organism from the late Ediacaran Period, notable for its quilted, oval shape and its debated position in the tree of life.
-
E.
Lulworthiales
Lulworthiales is an order of marine fungi within the class Sordariomycetes, known for decomposing wood and other plant material in coastal and oceanic environments.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Asteroxylon mackiei Target entity description: Asteroxylon mackiei is an early Devonian vascular land plant known from exceptionally well-preserved fossils that provide key insights into the evolution of plant structure and terrestrialization.
-
A.
Horneophyton lignieri
Horneophyton lignieri is an early Devonian land plant known from the Rhynie Chert, notable for its simple vascular structure and significance in understanding the evolution of terrestrial flora.
-
B.
Aglaophyton
Aglaophyton is an extinct early land plant from the Early Devonian period, known for its simple, leafless branching stems and importance in understanding the evolution of vascular plants.
-
C.
Rhynia
Rhynia is an extinct genus of simple, leafless vascular plants from the Early Devonian period that represents one of the earliest well-preserved examples of land plant evolution.
-
D.
Dickinsonia
Dickinsonia is an extinct, soft-bodied, segmented organism from the late Ediacaran Period, notable for its quilted, oval shape and its debated position in the tree of life.
-
E.
Lulworthiales
Lulworthiales is an order of marine fungi within the class Sordariomycetes, known for decomposing wood and other plant material in coastal and oceanic environments.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
early vascular land plant
ⓘ
extinct plant species ⓘ lycophyte ⓘ |
| age | Pragian ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Aglaophyton major
ⓘ
linked to:
Aglaophyton
Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii ⓘ
linked to:
Rhynia
Rhynie Chert biota ⓘ
linked to:
Rhynie Chert fossil locality
|
| countryOfFossilDiscovery | Scotland ⓘ |
| describedFrom |
Rhynie, Aberdeenshire
ⓘ
linked to:
Rhynie, Scotland
|
| division | Lycopodiophyta ⓘ |
| ecologicalRole | early terrestrial pioneer plant ⓘ |
| environment | hot-spring influenced wetland ⓘ |
| family | Asteroxylaceae ⓘ |
| fossilSite |
Rhynie Chert
ⓘ
linked to:
Rhynie Chert fossil locality
|
| fossilStatus | type species of Asteroxylon ⓘ |
| genus |
Asteroxylon
ⓘ
linked to:
Asteroxylon mackiei
|
| geologicalFormation |
Rhynie Chert Formation
ⓘ
linked to:
Rhynie Chert fossil locality
|
| growthForm | upright aerial axes from prostrate rhizomes ⓘ |
| hasAnatomicalFeature |
centrarch protostele
ⓘ
distinct cortex and stele separation ⓘ enations ⓘ endodermis ⓘ lateral leafy shoots ⓘ leafless main axes ⓘ rhizoids ⓘ rhizome-like axes ⓘ secondary xylem absent ⓘ simple microphyll-like structures ⓘ vascular tissue ⓘ |
| importanceInPaleobotany |
model organism for early lycophyte morphology
ⓘ
used to infer early root evolution ⓘ |
| kingdom | Plantae ⓘ |
| livedApproximately | 410 million years ago ⓘ |
| maximumAxisDiameter | about 6 millimetres ⓘ |
| namedAfter | William Mackie ⓘ |
| photosyntheticOrgan | lateral leafy shoots with enations ⓘ |
| preservationQuality | exceptionally well-preserved ⓘ |
| preservationType | silicified fossils ⓘ |
| reproductiveStructure | sporangia ⓘ |
| scientificSignificance |
important for studying terrestrialization of plants
ⓘ
key taxon for understanding evolution of vascular plants ⓘ provides detailed 3D anatomical information ⓘ |
| sporangiaPosition | lateral on specialized axes ⓘ |
| sporeType | homosporous ⓘ |
| taxonRank | species ⓘ |
| temporalRange | Early Devonian ⓘ |
| waterConductingTissue | tracheids ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Asteroxylon mackiei Description of subject: Asteroxylon mackiei is an early Devonian vascular land plant known from exceptionally well-preserved fossils that provide key insights into the evolution of plant structure and terrestrialization.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Asteroxylon mackiei