DOCSLIB.ORG

Studies on the Late Permian Permineralized Tree Fern Psaronius Housuoensis Sp. Nov. from Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Studies on the Late Permian Permineralized Tree Fern Psaronius Housuoensis Sp. Nov. from Yunnan Province, Southwest China Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 163 (2011) 247–263 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/revpalbo Research paper Studies on the Late Permian permineralized tree fern Psaronius housuoensis sp. nov. from Yunnan Province, southwest China Ashalata D'Rozario a,⁎, Bin Sun b, Jean Galtier c, Shi-Jun Wang b, Wen-Yi Guo b,d, Yi-Feng Yao b, Cheng-Sen Li b a Department of Botany, Narasinha Dutt College, 129, Bellilious Road, Howrah 711 101, India b State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, PR China c UMR Botanique et Bioinformatique, AMAP, CIRAD, TA A-51/PS2, Boulevard de la Lironde. 34398 Montpellier cedex 05, France d 2 Xiamen Environmental Protection Institute, Xiamen 361006, PR China article info abstract Article history: Psaronius housuoensis sp. nov. is described from the Upper Permian Xuanwei Formation deposits of Housuo Received 2 May 2010 Coal Mine, Fuyuan County, Yunnan Province, southwest China, adding to the marattialean fern community of Received in revised form 1 November 2010 the Cathaysian flora. The permineralized stem shows a polycyclic dictyostele with five leaf traces arranged in a Accepted 2 November 2010 helical manner and exhibiting 2/5 phyllotaxy. Vascular bundles arranged in 6 concentric rings with cauline Available online 10 November 2010 bundles in 5 radial rows. Stem bound externally by a peripheral sclerenchyma sheath. Leaf trace configuration comprised of three vascular bundles resulting from the division of a single originally C-shaped strand. Ground Keywords: Marattiales tissue replaced with coprolites and sediments. Stem surrounded by a thick mantle of roots. Occurrence of Psaronius coprolites within the stem indicates well developed plant–animal interaction during the Late Permian times Late Permian and that the habitat in which Psaronius grew was abounding with diversity of arthropod or the oribatid mite anatomy community preferring the rotting P. housuoensis sp. nov. stem ground tissue as a suitable microenvironment leaf traces for shelter. Evolutionary pattern of leaf trace development is described in the new species and its possible ecological significance. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction trunks from Euramerican flora are common (Cotta, 1832; Renault, 1869; Morgan, 1959; Mickle, 1984), or as coal balls (Smoot, 1984; Galtier and The tree fern Psaronius widely distributed during the Late Permian Phillips, 1985; Millay, 1997; Tian et al., 1996; He et al., 2008,) or may (Lopingian) times has greatly attracted the attention of many scientists occur as pyroclastic tuffitic material (Corda, 1845; Rößler and Barthel, because of its unique stelar structures and pattern of leaf trace 1998). Falcon-Lang, 2006 reported the autochthonous occurrence of development. Spanning the time period from earliest Pennsylvanian Psaronius trunks from latest Mid-Pennsylvanian coastal plain deposits in (DiMichele and Phillips, 1977) to Late Permian and -Triassic period Sydney Basin. Globally Psaronius has been recorded from Europe, North (Frentzen, 1914; Hirmer, 1927) they are important elements of the Late America, South America, Southeast Asia and China (He et al., 2008). Carboniferous and Permian flora (Cotta, 1832; Corda, 1845; Zeiller, The late Palaeozoic Cathaysian flora of China has preponderance of 1890; Stenzel, 1906; Morgan, 1959; Phillips et al., 1974, 1985; several marattialean ferns, among which Psaronius is a common Pfefferkorn and Thomson, 1982; DiMichele and Phillips, 1994; Falcon- element. Permineralized trunks of several species of Psaronius com- Lang, 2006; He et al., 2008) of the tropical and subtropical regions of monly occur in the late Permian floral assemblages of China. P. sinensis both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These plants had a wide (Sze, 1942, 1947) was reported from the Emeishan Basalt of Weining geographical distribution as evidenced by their common occurrence in County, Sichuan Province; P. hexagonus (Gu and Zhi, 1974) was recorded the Euramerican, Cathaysian and Gondwana flora (Rößler, 2000). In from Xuanwei Formation of Sichuan Province; P. yunnanensis from addition they also grew in varied ecological habitats; some species in the Xuanwei Formation of Kunming City, eastern Yunnan Province (Yang, clastic hygrophile lowlands (Phillips et al., 1985; DiMichele and Phillips, 1986); P. jiangsuensis and P. octogonus from the Longtan Formation of 1994), some in peat forming hygrophile mires while others in the Jiangsu Province (Yao et al., 1994); P. wangii (Tian et al., 1992; Li and Cui, mesophilic soil with periodic drier conditions (Barthel and Weiss, 1997; 1995; Tian and Wang, 1995; Tian et al., 1996), P. cf magnificus (Li and Cui, Falcon-Lang, 2006). Records of Psaronius as permineralized, silicified 1995; Tian et al., 1996)andP. panxianensis (He et al., 2008)from Xuanwei Formation of Panxian County, Guizhou Province. Several isolated pieces of Psaronius sp. root mantles were found in the ⁎ Corresponding author. Department of Botany, Narasinha Dutt College, 129, Bellilious Road, Howrah 711 101, India. volcaniclastic tuffs from Xuanwei Formation of Panxian County, E-mail address: [email protected] (A. D'Rozario). Guizhou Province, China (Hilton et al., 2004). 0034-6667/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2010.11.002 248 A. D'Rozario et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 163 (2011) 247–263 Zhong and Smyth (1997) reported the presence of Psaronius on the tannularia cathavsiana, Fascipteris stena, Gigantopteris dictyophylloides, basis of occurrence of ‘barkinite’ in Late Permian marine-influenced coal Gigantonoclea guizhouensis,andRhipidopsis pani were found from the balls of Changguang, Leping and Shuicheng Basins of southern China. fourth part (57.7 m in thickness) of Xuanwei Formation (Bureau of The genus Psaronius was initially described by Cotta (1832) for Geology and Mineral Resources of Yunnan Province, 1990). segments of permineralized trunks, but presently used to refer to the Anatomical study of specimen no. HS-27 is described in the entire plant. In general habit these plants are similar to the present present paper. tree ferns with an upright unbranched stem, bearing a crown of Since the specimens were highly permineralized and etching with spirally arranged pinnate compound leaves. The stem increases in size hydrofluoric or hydrochloric acid did not prove successful, the ‘peel and complexity from base upwards (Morgan, 1959). At the extreme method’ (Galtier and Phillips, 1999) of examining the specimen was base there are mainly roots and the stem is represented by a small not possible, and so the ‘thin section method’ (Hass and Rowe, 1999) siphonostele, which gradually expands upwards to a polycyclic was employed. The permineralized specimen was cut into several dictyostele at the apex, thus forming an inverted cone shaped thin transverse sections with the help of the rock cutting machine construction. The root mantle consists of an inner zone with roots (SPOJ-300), ground and polished with 100 and 300 grade carborun- of small diameter and an outer zone of larger roots. dum powder on single disc polishing machine and mounted on to The present paper describes the anatomical features of a new glass slides using epoxy resin and triethanolamine. It was further species of Psaronius, P. housuoensis sp. nov. from the Upper Permian, polished with 600 and 1000 grade carborundum powder on a glass Xuanwei Formation deposits of Housuo Coal Mine, Fuyuan County, plate for observation under transmitted and reflected light. Yunnan Province, southwest China, the evolutionary pattern found To determine the phyllotaxy and developmental stages of the leaf therein and possible ecological significance. traces serial sections of the 23-cm length of the stem has been cut and slides prepared. Sixteen such thin section slides were prepared and 2. Materials and methods numbered as HS-27-01 to 16 from top to base. HS-27-01 represents the topmost section and HS-27-16 the basal part. As the material is The materials of Psaronius for the present investigation were collected highly petrified so in the process of preparation of the thin sections as permineralized fossil trunks from Upper Permian deposits of Xuanwei there is every possibility that some layers will be worn out during FormationofHousuocoalmine,FuyuanCounty,YunnanProvince, polishing. Taking into account the limitations of the conditions of southwest China (Fig. 1). About 30 trunk specimens numbering from preservation, study of these sections has been undertaken to reveal HS-01 to HS-30 were collected from the coal seam and cut (Fig. 2). None of the pattern of leaf arrangement and leaf trace development. The slides the specimens cut was found to be similar to the studied specimen HS-27. were observed and studied by Leica DMRE microscope, Leica DM 2500 No other plant taxa were found in association with the tree fern trunks microscope and Orient SMI Stereo microscope and photographed by collected from the coal seam. But fossil plants such as Leidodendron Canon EOS 20D digital camera, Nikon Coolpix 4500 and Leica DFC 420 lepidophloides, Paracalamites stenocostatus, Compsopteris contracta, Loba- camera. Images were adjusted in Adobe Photoshop (V. 7) and plates Fig. 1. Map of Fuyuan County, Yunnan Province, southwest China showing position of Housuo coal mine and locality of fossil
Load more

Recommended publications
  • International Organisation of Palaeobotany IOP NEWSLETTER
    INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOLOGIC A L S C IENC ES S ECTION FOR P A L A EOBOTANY International Organisation of Palaeobotany IOP NEWSLETTER 110 August 2016 CONTENTS FROM THE SECRETARY/TREASURER IPC XIV/IOPC X 2016 IOPC 2020 IOP MEMBERSHIP IOP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTIONS IOP WEBMASTER POSITION WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OUPH COLLECTIONS? THE PALAEOBOTANY OF ITALY UPCOMING MEETINGS CALL FOR NEWS and NOTES The views expressed in the newsletter are those of its correspondents, and do not necessarily reflect the policy of IOP. Please send us your contributions for the next edition of our newsletter (June 2016) by M ay 30th, 2016. President: Johanna Eder-Kovar (G ermany) Vice Presidents: Bob Spicer (Great Britain), Harufumi Nishida (Japan), M ihai Popa (Romania) M embers at Large: Jun W ang (China), Hans Kerp (Germany), Alexej Herman (Russia) Secretary/Treasurer/Newsletter editor: M ike Dunn (USA) Conference/Congress Chair: Francisco de Assis Ribeiro dos Santos IOP Logo: The evolution of plant architecture (© by A. R. Hemsley) I OP 110 2 August 2016 FROM THE In addition, please send any issues that you think need to be addressed at the Business SECRETARY/TREASURER meeting. I will add those to the Agenda. Dear IOP Members, Respectfully, Mike I am happy to report, that IOP seems to be on track and ready for a new Executive Council to take over. The elections are IPC XIV/IOPC X 2016 progressing nicely and I will report the results in the September/October Newsletter. The one area that is still problematic is the webmaster position. We really to talk amongst ourselves, and find someone who is willing and able to do the job.
    [Show full text]
  • Retallack 2021 Coal Balls
    Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 564 (2021) 110185 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo Modern analogs reveal the origin of Carboniferous coal balls Gregory Retallack * Department of Earth Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1272, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Coal balls are calcareous peats with cellular permineralization invaluable for understanding the anatomy of Coal ball Pennsylvanian and Permian fossil plants. Two distinct kinds of coal balls are here recognized in both Holocene Histosol and Pennsylvanian calcareous Histosols. Respirogenic calcite coal balls have arrays of calcite δ18O and δ13C like Carbon isotopes those of desert soil calcic horizons reflecting isotopic composition of CO2 gas from an aerobic microbiome. Permineralization Methanogenic calcite coal balls in contrast have invariant δ18O for a range of δ13C, and formed with anaerobic microbiomes in soil solutions with bicarbonate formed by methane oxidation and sugar fermentation. Respiro­ genic coal balls are described from Holocene peats in Eight Mile Creek South Australia, and noted from Carboniferous coals near Penistone, Yorkshire. Methanogenic coal balls are described from Carboniferous coals at Berryville (Illinois) and Steubenville (Ohio), Paleocene lignites of Sutton (Alaska), Eocene lignites of Axel Heiberg Island (Nunavut), Pleistocene peats of Konya (Turkey), and Holocene peats of Gramigne di Bando (Italy). Soils and paleosols with coal balls are neither common nor extinct, but were formed by two distinct soil microbiomes. 1. Introduction and Royer, 2019). Although best known from Euramerican coal mea­ sures of Pennsylvanian age (Greb et al., 1999; Raymond et al., 2012, Coal balls were best defined by Seward (1895, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Mineralogy of Non-Silicified Fossil Wood
    Article Mineralogy of Non-Silicified Fossil Wood George E. Mustoe Geology Department, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA; [email protected]; Tel: +1-360-650-3582 Received: 21 December 2017; Accepted: 27 February 2018; Published: 3 March 2018 Abstract: The best-known and most-studied petrified wood specimens are those that are mineralized with polymorphs of silica: opal-A, opal-C, chalcedony, and quartz. Less familiar are fossil woods preserved with non-silica minerals. This report reviews discoveries of woods mineralized with calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, various iron and copper minerals, manganese oxide, fluorite, barite, natrolite, and smectite clay. Regardless of composition, the processes of mineralization involve the same factors: availability of dissolved elements, pH, Eh, and burial temperature. Permeability of the wood and anatomical features also plays important roles in determining mineralization. When precipitation occurs in several episodes, fossil wood may have complex mineralogy. Keywords: fossil wood; mineralogy; paleobotany; permineralization 1. Introduction Non-silica minerals that cause wood petrifaction include calcite, apatite, iron pyrites, siderite, hematite, manganese oxide, various copper minerals, fluorite, barite, natrolite, and the chromium- rich smectite clay mineral, volkonskoite. This report provides a broad overview of woods fossilized with these minerals, describing specimens from world-wide locations comprising a diverse variety of mineral assemblages. Data from previously-undescribed fossil woods are also presented. The result is a paper that has a somewhat unconventional format, being a combination of literature review and original research. In an attempt for clarity, the information is organized based on mineral composition, rather than in the format of a hypothesis-driven research report.
    [Show full text]
  • © in This Web Service Cambridge University
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-88715-1 - An Introduction to Plant Fossils Christopher J. Cleal & Barry A. Thomas Index More information Index Abscission 33, 76, 81, 82, 119, Antarctica 25, 26, 93, 117, 150, 153, Baiera 169 150, 191 209, 212 Balme, Basil 24 Acer 195, 198, 216 Antheridia 56, 64, 88 Bamboos 197 Acitheca 49, 119 Antholithus 31 Banks, Harlan P. 28 Acorus 194 Araliaceae 191 Baragwanathia 28, 43, 72, 74 Acrostichum 129, 130 Araliosoides 187 Bark 67 Actinocalyx 190 Araucaria 157, 159, 160, 164, 181 Barsostrobus 76 Adpressions 3, 4, 9, 12, 38 Araucariaceae 163, 212, 214 Barthel, Manfred 21 Agathis 157 Araucarites 163 Bean, William 29 Agavaceae 192 Arber, Agnes 19, 65 Beania 30 Agave 193 Arber, E. A. Newell 18, 19, 30 ReconstructionofBeania-tree169,172 Aglaophyton 64 Arcellites 133 Bear Island 94, 95 Agriculture 220 Archaeanthus 187, 189 Beck, Charles 69 Alethopteris 46, 144, 145 Archaeocalamitaceae 97, 205 Belgium 19, 22, 39, 68, 112, 129 Algae 55 Archaeocalamites 9799, 100, 105 Belize 125 Alismataceae 194 Archaeopteridales 69 Bennettitales 33, 157, 170, 171, Allicospermum 165 Archaeopteris 39, 40, 68, 69, 71, 153 172174, 182, 211214 Allochthonous assemblages 3, 11 Archaeosperma 137, 139 Bennie, James 24 Alnus 24, 179, 216 Archegonia 56, 135, 137 Bentall, R. 24 Aloe 192 Arctic-Alpine flora 219 Bertrand, Paul 18 Alternating generations 1, 5557, 85 Arcto-Tertiary flora 117, 215, 216 Bertrandia 114 Amerosinian Flora 96, 97, 205, Argentina 3, 77, 130, 164 Betulaceae 179, 195, 215 206, 208 Ariadnaesporites 132 Bevhalstia 188 Amber, preservation in 7, 42, 194 Arnold, Chester 28, 29, 67 Binney, Edward 21 Anabathra 81 Arthropitys 97, 101 Biomes 51 Andrews, Henry N.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Birmingham an Anatomically Advanced Species Of
    University of Birmingham An anatomically advanced species of the fern Botryopteris Renault from the Permian of southwestern China He, Xiao-Yuan; Wang, Shi-Jun; Hilton, Jason; Galtier, Jean; Jiang, Hong-Guan DOI: 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.104136 License: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) Document Version Peer reviewed version Citation for published version (Harvard): He, X-Y, Wang, S-J, Hilton, J, Galtier, J & Jiang, H-G 2020, 'An anatomically advanced species of the fern Botryopteris Renault from the Permian of southwestern China', Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, vol. 273, 104136, pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.104136 Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. •Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. •Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. •User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of ‘fair dealing’ under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) •Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document.
    [Show full text]
  • Diversity and Evolution of the Megaphyll in Euphyllophytes
    G Model PALEVO-665; No. of Pages 16 ARTICLE IN PRESS C. R. Palevol xxx (2012) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Comptes Rendus Palevol w ww.sciencedirect.com General palaeontology, systematics and evolution (Palaeobotany) Diversity and evolution of the megaphyll in Euphyllophytes: Phylogenetic hypotheses and the problem of foliar organ definition Diversité et évolution de la mégaphylle chez les Euphyllophytes : hypothèses phylogénétiques et le problème de la définition de l’organe foliaire ∗ Adèle Corvez , Véronique Barriel , Jean-Yves Dubuisson UMR 7207 CNRS-MNHN-UPMC, centre de recherches en paléobiodiversité et paléoenvironnements, 57, rue Cuvier, CP 48, 75005 Paris, France a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Recent paleobotanical studies suggest that megaphylls evolved several times in land plant st Received 1 February 2012 evolution, implying that behind the single word “megaphyll” are hidden very differ- Accepted after revision 23 May 2012 ent notions and concepts. We therefore review current knowledge about diverse foliar Available online xxx organs and related characters observed in fossil and living plants, using one phylogenetic hypothesis to infer their origins and evolution. Four foliar organs and one lateral axis are Presented by Philippe Taquet described in detail and differ by the different combination of four main characters: lateral organ symmetry, abdaxity, planation and webbing. Phylogenetic analyses show that the Keywords: “true” megaphyll appeared at least twice in Euphyllophytes, and that the history of the Euphyllophytes Megaphyll four main characters is different in each case. The current definition of the megaphyll is questioned; we propose a clear and accurate terminology in order to remove ambiguities Bilateral symmetry Abdaxity of the current vocabulary.
    [Show full text]
  • Petrified Wood: the Anatomy of Arborescent Plant Life Through Time
    The Anatomy of Arborescent Plant Life Through Time Mike Viney Collectors of petrified wood focus on permineralized plant material related to arborescent (tree-like) plant life. Evidence for the first fossil forest occurs in the Devonian. Fossil forest composition changes through geologic time, reflecting variety in evolutionary strategies for constructing a tree form. It is helpful and informative to study the anatomy of various trunk designs. Evolutionary adaptations for trunk structure can be recognized by the arrangement of tissues and organs. A quick survey of plant organs and tissues will enhance our discussion of the various evolutionary strategies for constructing a tree form. Plants are made of four types of organs: roots, stems, leaves, and reproductive structures. In turn, these organs are composed of three basic tissue systems: the ground tissue system, the vascular tissue system, and the dermal tissue system. Ground tissues including parenchyma, collenchyma and sclerenchyma are involved in photosynthesis, storage, secretion, transport, and structure. Parenchyma tissue produces all other tissues. Living parenchyma cells are involved in photosynthesis, storage, secretion, regeneration and in the movement of water and food. Parenchyma cells are typically spherical to cube shaped. Collenchyma tissue provides structural support for young growing organs. Living collenchyma cells are elongated cylinders and help to make up the familiar string-like material in celery stalks and leaf petioles. Sclerenchyma tissue provides support for primary and secondary plant bodies. Sclerenchyma cells often have lignified secondary walls and lack protoplasm at maturity. Elongated slender sclerenchyma cells known as fibers make up well known fibrous material such as hemp, jute, and flax.
    [Show full text]
  • The Marattiales and Vegetative Features of the Polypodiids We Now
    VI. Ferns I: The Marattiales and Vegetative Features of the Polypodiids We now take up the ferns, order Marattiales - a group of large tropical ferns with primitive features - and subclass Polypodiidae, the leptosporangiate ferns. (See the PPG phylogeny on page 48a: Susan, Dave, and Michael, are authors.) Members of these two groups are spore-dispersed vascular plants with siphonosteles and megaphylls. A. Marattiales, an Order of Eusporangiate Ferns The Marattiales have a well-documented history. They first appear as tree ferns in the coal swamps right in there with Lepidodendron and Calamites. (They will feature in your second critical reading and writing assignment in this capacity!) The living species are prominent in some hot forests, both in tropical America and tropical Asia. They are very like the leptosporangiate ferns (Polypodiids), but they differ in having the common, primitive, thick-walled sporangium, the eusporangium, and in having a distinctive stele and root structure. 1. Living Plants Go with your TA to the greenhouse to view the potted Angiopteris. The largest of the Marattiales, mature Angiopteris plants bear fronds up to 30 feet in length! a.These plants, like all ferns, have megaphylls. These megaphylls are divided into leaflets called pinnae, which are often divided even further. The feather-like design of these leaves is common among the ferns, suggesting that ferns have some sort of narrow definition to the kinds of leaf design they can evolve. b. The leaflets are borne on stem-like axes called rachises, which, as you can see, have swollen bases on some of the plants in the lab.
    [Show full text]
  • 2001 Vol. 4, Issue 3
    Department of Systematic Biology - Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium The Plant Press New Series - Vol. 4 - No. 3 July-September 2001 Botany Profile clarified by Lellinger in a major work Pinnae for Your Thoughts entitled A Modern Multilingual Glos- By Robert DeFilipps herbarium aide in 1960, has been a full sary for Taxonomic Pteridology which erns and their entourage of “allies” curator since 1987. Morton and Lellinger covers approximately 1,100 terms and have been on the earth for ages. were co-authoring South American fern synonyms in English, Spanish, French, FRelated by similarities of their articles as early as 1966. and Portuguese. It will be published this structure and life history as spore-bearing Lellinger was born in Chicago, Illinois, year by the American Fern Society in vascular cryptogams, the ancestors of in 1937, and attended the University of Pteridologia, a leading journal of which today’s ferns, horsetails (Equisetum), Illinois at Urbana (A.B. with Highest Lellinger is currently editor and business club-mosses (Lycopodium), and spike- Distinction in Botany, 1958) before manager. mosses (Selaginella) once freely proceeding to graduate studies at the One of Lellinger’s abiding interests cohabited in communities exemplified by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (M.S. has been the pteridophyte flora of the now-extinct ferns (such as Psaronius), 1960; Ph.D. 1965). His botanical beginning region comprising Costa Rica, Panama, horsetails (Annularia, Sphenophyllum), was inspired by a chance meeting with and the Chocó in Colombia, where he and giant club-mosses (Lepidodendron) Albert Fuller (Milwaukee Public Museum), conducted fieldwork in various years in the swamp forests of the Carboniferous eventually resulting in an from 1967 to 1987.
    [Show full text]
  • Deciphering Silicification Pathways of Fossil Forests: Case Studies from the Late Paleozoic of Central Europe
    minerals Article Deciphering Silicification Pathways of Fossil Forests: Case Studies from the Late Paleozoic of Central Europe Steffen Trümper 1,2,*, Ronny Rößler 1,2 and Jens Götze 3 1 Museum of Natural History Chemnitz, Moritzstraße 20, D-09111 Chemnitz, Germany; [email protected] 2 Institute of Geology, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Bernhard-von-Cotta-Straße 2, D-09599 Freiberg, Germany 3 Institute of Mineralogy, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Brennhausgasse 14, D-09599 Freiberg, Germany; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 5 July 2018; Accepted: 26 September 2018; Published: 1 October 2018 Abstract: The occurrence and formation of silicified wood from five late Paleozoic basins in Central Europe was investigated. Fossil wood from diverse geological settings was studied using field observations, taphonomic determinations as well as mineralogical analyses (polarizing microscopy, cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy and spectroscopy). The results indicate that silicification is either a monophase or multiphase process under varying physico-chemical conditions. In particular, CL studies revealed complex processes of silica accumulation and crystallization. The CL characteristics of quartz phases in silicified wood can mostly be related to blue (390 and 440 nm), yellow (580 nm), and red (650 nm) emission bands, which may appear in different combinations and varying intensity ratios. Yellow CL is typical for initial silicification, reflecting quick precipitation under oxygen-deficient conditions caused by initial decay of the organic material. Blue CL is predominantly of secondary origin, resulting from replacement of precursor phases by a secondary hydrothermal quartz generation or subsequent silicification of wood. The red CL can be related to a lattice defect (non-bridging oxygen hole center—NBOHC).
    [Show full text]
  • The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2011
    The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 T h e N a r r o w s N e w s Sarnia, Ontario, Canada Meetings are held on the 2nd Friday of each Month Sept - May 7:30 PM TWIN LAKES TERRACE 1310 Murphy Rd, Sarnia ON The Narrows News is published five times/year – Jan, March, May, Sept, Nov. 1 SRFC Meeting Information 6-7 Locations Of Petrified Wood 2 SRFC Executive, Presidents Message 8 Chinese Tourist Destroys 3 Groups, Club News 9 Brad’s Bench Tips 4 What Is Petrified Wood 10 Puzzle 5 How To Identify Types of Petrified Wood Page 1 The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 President’s Message SRFC Executive Hi Burrrr its cold outside, I guess the government forgot to tell Mother President: Nature about global warming. I guess we shouldn’t complain, we do live in Ivan McKay the North and I have seen it worst then this. Welcome everybody to 2018, hope everyone had a good Christmas Vice President: holiday. Now is the time to get back into the swing of things and start Mark Nilsson planning for the future. If anybody has any ideas for field trips please bring it up at our meeting. We also need a program presentation for our meetings. If you have an interesting story or know of someone that can do a Past President presentation please bring it up at a meeting so we can make arrangements Wayne Wilcocks for it to be presented. Chris Risk is having a closing out sale at his store in Glencoe.
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamic Carboniferous Tropical Forests: New Views of Plant Function and Potential for Physiological Forcing of Climate
    Review Tansley review Dynamic Carboniferous tropical forests: new views of plant function and potential for physiological forcing of climate Authors for correspondence: Jonathan P. Wilson1*, Isabel P. Montanez~ 2*, Joseph D. White3, Jonathan P. Wilson William A. DiMichele4, Jennifer C. McElwain5, Christopher J. Poulsen6 and Tel: +1 610 896 4217 7 Email: [email protected] Michael T. Hren 1Department of Biology, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041, USA; 2Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Isabel P. Montanez~ Tel: +1 530 754 7823 California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; 3Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA; 4Department of Paleobiology, Email: [email protected] Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 20560, USA; 5Earth Institute, School of Biology and Environmental Received: 13 March 2017 Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; 6Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Accepted: 22 May 2017 Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; 7Center for Integrative Geosciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA Contents Summary 1333 VI. The big picture: an active role for early forests In Late Paleozoic climate 1347 I. Introduction 1334 Acknowledgements 1348 II. Plants of the Pennsylvanian Tropical Realm 1335 Author contributions 1348 III. Conceptual insights into paleoecophysiology 1339 References 1348 IV. High-productivity Carboniferous plants 1344 V. Lessons learned 1347 Summary New Phytologist (2017) 215: 1333–1353 The Carboniferous, the time of Earth’s penultimate icehouse and widespread coal formation, doi: 10.1111/nph.14700 was dominated by extinct lineages of early-diverging vascular plants. Studies of nearest living relatives of key Carboniferous plants suggest that their physiologies and growth forms differed Key words: Carboniferous, medullosans, substantially from most types of modern vegetation, particularly forests.
    [Show full text]