Plant
Asteroxylon
Asteroxylon mackiei grew as a small branching plant, with leafy shoots and a different system of rooting axes.
Asteroxylon mackiei grew as a small branching plant, with leafy shoots and a different system of rooting axes. Exceptionally preserved fossils make its underground growth particularly informative.
Three stages. One companion.
Game artwork
AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.
Asteroxylon at a glance
- Diet
- Photosynthetic
- It used sunlight to make organic matter through photosynthesis.
- When it lived
- Early Devonian
- Group
- Lycopsida
- Early lycopsids
Beyond the game
The real Asteroxylon
Asteroxylon mackiei grew as a small branching plant, with leafy shoots and a different system of rooting axes. Exceptionally preserved fossils make its underground growth particularly informative.
Its rooting structures help researchers study how early vascular plants colonized land. The underground axes differed from the true roots of many later plants.
Fossil discoveries
Selected fossil records · present-day map
Map references
Hetherington et al. 2021 — An evidence-based 3D reconstruction of Asteroxylon mackiei ↗
Map location · Rhynie chert, Aberdeenshire, Scotland ↗
Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: Paleobiology Database and linked collections and publications.Sources & text credits
Explore the references behind this profile.
Original English Dinosgacha educational summaries informed by the linked scientific and museum references; source publications retain their own rights.