Luc Cornet, Philippe Gerrienne, Brigitte Meyer-Berthaud and Cyrille Prestianni
A permineralized Callixylon trunk is reported from Ronquières, a mid to late Givetian (Middle Devonian) locality from Belgium. The specimen consists of an 80 cm long trunk adpression whose central area is preserved as a pyrite permineralization. The pyritized area is composed of a eustele surrounded by secondary xylem. Tracheids show radially aligned groups of pits separated by unpitted regions on the radial walls of tracheids. The specimen belongs to a group of species characterized by a predominance of uniseriate rays and the lack of ray tracheids. This Callixylon specimen is one of the earliest representatives of the genus. It coexists at the locality with large cladoxylopsids and provides direct evidence that the tree habit had evolved in the archaeopteridalean progymnosperms by the Givetian.