[2] Nematothallus was first described by Lang in 1937,[4] who envisioned it being an early thallose land plant with tubular features and sporophytes, covered by a cuticle which preserved impressions of the underlying cells.

[5] He had found abundant disaggregated remains of all three features, none of which were connected to another, leaving his reconstruction of the phytodebris as parts of a single organism highly conjectural.

Alternatively, Edwards (1982) proposed that the inner tissue of Nematothallus comprised stringy tubes, with the cellular patterning produced by their ends.

[7] The genus was later formalised by Strother,[1] who discovered better preserved and more complete specimens in Pennsylvania, America – which appear to show tubes connected to the rims of cuticle.

[11] Further work by Edwards and Rose has identified oval-shaped growths in places on the cuticles of a limited number of Nematothallus fragments, which develop into holes – whose purpose is unknown.