New evidence from pre-Permian strata provides an opportunity to enhance our knowledge
of the earliest conifers, and together with previously known information forms the basis for
evaluating both the time and mode of origin for the group. The earliest co-occurrence of
eustelic stems with needle-like leaves, saccate pollen and compound ovulate strobili with
bilaterally symmetrical ovules, suggests that the conifers originated at about the beginning of
the Westphalian. The first extensive evidence for conifer anatomy from Pennsylvanian …