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Middle Jurassic Plant Diversity and Climate in the Ordos Basin, China Yun-Feng Lia, B, *, Hongshan Wangc, David L

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Middle Jurassic Plant Diversity and Climate in the Ordos Basin, China Yun-Feng Lia, B, *, Hongshan Wangc, David L ISSN 0031-0301, Paleontological Journal, 2019, Vol. 53, No. 11, pp. 1216–1235. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2019. Middle Jurassic Plant Diversity and Climate in the Ordos Basin, China Yun-Feng Lia, b, *, Hongshan Wangc, David L. Dilchera, b, d, E. Bugdaevae, Xiao Tana, b, d, Tao Lia, b, Yu-Ling Naa, b, and Chun-Lin Suna, b, ** aKey Laboratory for Evolution of Past Life and Environment in Northeast Asia, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130026 China bResearch Center of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130026 China cFlorida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611 USA dDepartment of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405 USA eFederal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, 690022 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] **e-mail: [email protected] Received April 3, 2018; revised November 29, 2018; accepted December 28, 2018 Abstract—The Ordos Basin is one of the largest continental sedimentary basins and it represents one major and famous production area of coal, oil and gas resources in China. The Jurassic non-marine deposits are well developed and cropped out in the basin. The Middle Jurassic Yan’an Formation is rich in coal and con- tains diverse plant remains. We recognize 40 species in 25 genera belonging to mosses, horsetails, ferns, cycadophytes, ginkgoaleans, czekanowskialeans and conifers. This flora is attributed to the early Middle Jurassic Epoch, possibly the Aalenian-Bajocian. The climate of the Ordos Basin during the Middle Jurassic was warm and humid with seasonal temperature and precipitation fluctuations. The result tends to support the palaeophytogeographic/palaeoclimatic setting of the Ordos Basin in the North Floristic Province, or the North Chinese Province in the warm temperate zone during the Middle Jurassic. Keywords: Middle Jurassic, Yan’an Formation, Plant diversity, Palaeophytogeography, Palaeoclimate, Ordos Basin, China DOI: 10.1134/S0031030119110091 INTRODUCTION Subsequently, Sze (1956a) described 62 species from The Ordos Basin, bounded by the Yinshan and the Late Triassic Yanchang Formation of northern Daqingshan on the north, the Qinling on the south, Shaanxi and established the Mesozoic floristic succes- the Helanshan and Liupanshan on the west, and the sion and continental strata classification scheme in Luliangshan and Taihangshan on the east, is one of China. The most important publication on the stratig- the largest continental sedimentary basins (Ritts et al., raphy and palaeobotany of the Ordos Basin is probably 2009; Zhao et al., 2012). It consists of a thick, unde- the monograph by Huang and Zhou (1980). Another formed stratigraphic succession over a wide region, important paper describing the Middle Jurassic flora representing a major and famous coal, oil and natural of the southern Ordos Basin was later published by gas producing area in China. The Jurassic non-marine Duan et al. (1986). A series of brief studies on the fossil deposits are well developed and mainly exposed in plants from the Yan’an Formation at Gaotouyao in the northeastern and central Ordos Basin, and the Middle northern Ordos Basin were published at the beginning Jurassic is represented by the Yan’an, the Zhiluo and of the 21th century (Ge et al., 2004, 2006, 2007). the Anding formations in ascending order (Bureau of Additionally, Sun et al. (2011) and Zhao et al. (2011) Geology and Mineral Resources…, 1991; Bureau of described the fossil plants from the Yan’an Formation Geology and Mineral Resources…, 1996; Wang et al., from the Dongsheng Coal Field and attributed the 2000). The Yan’an Formation is rich in coal resources flora of the Yan’an Formation to the Early–Middle and contains diverse plant remains. Jurassic in age. The fossil plants of the Ordos Basin have been suc- However, all the aforementioned palaeobotanical cessively studied since the 1930s. Pan (1936) is the first studies were based on material without cuticle. With to record the Late Triassic plants of the Ordos Basin. the discovery of new material with well-preserved 1216 MIDDLE JURASSIC PLANT DIVERSITY AND CLIMATE IN THE ORDOS BASIN, CHINA 1217 ChuangxinChuangxin Beijing YanjiataYanjiata XinghengXingheng 0 360 720 km SS213213 ManshijinyangManshijinyang GG109109 DongshengDongsheng G18G18 SShenshangouhenshangou WWulanhadaulanhada OrdosOrdos S214S214 GG210210 G65G65 2020 kmkm Fig. 1. Geographic map showing the fossil localities in the northeastern area of the Ordos Basin, China. cuticle from the Ordos Basin, it is now possible to Yan’an Flora, and to discuss the biostratigraphic, carry out detailed study on the cuticular anatomy of palaeophytogeographic and palaeoclimatic implica- these plant fossils and provide important information tions based on our examinations on the plant fossil in resolving their systematic positions. In addition to materials collected from the Ordos Basin. In this studying the Middle Jurassic plant diversity pattern paper, plant fossil taxa are mentioned mostly at the and palaeoclimate of the Ordos Basin, it is also possi- generic level. Detailed palaeobotanical studies on the ble to assess the floristic assemblages and to apply this leaf cuticular structure and their systematics will be information in biostratigraphic correlations. Recently, published separately. This study will provide helpful with the ongoing conversion of the coal mining oper- information for the stratigraphic correlation of the ations from underground to the surface, more and Early Mesozoic coal bearing strata in the Ordos Basin, more coal seams and plant-bearing beds have been and will widen our knowledge on the Middle Jurassic exposed, providing good opportunities to collect and plant diversity and palaeoclimate of northern China. study the fossil plants in a sequential order in this area. During the 2012 and 2015 field seasons, we visited six opencast coal mines in the northeastern area of the GEOLOGICAL SETTINGS, Ordos Basin and collected numerous beautiful and MATERIAL, AND METHOD well-preserved plant megafossils from the Middle The plant remains studied here were collected from Jurassic Yan’an Formation. Preliminarily investiga- the Middle Jurassic coal-bearing Yan’an Formation from tions show that the flora of the Middle Jurassic Yan’an six opencast coal mines in the northeastern area of the Formation is very diverse, consisting of mosses, Ordos Basin, Inner Mongolia, China, including horsetails, ferns, cycadophytes, ginkgoaleans, cze- Chuangxin Coal Mine (40°0′37.67′′ N, 109°54′50.58′′E), kanowskialeans and conifers (Li et al., 2015a, b; Sun Yanjiata Coal Mine (39°59′46.00′′ N, 109°55′52.00′′ E), et al., 2015a). Among these collections, a number of Xingheng Coal Mine (39°57′58.37′′ N, 109°54′20.00′′ E), taxa have well-preserved cuticle (i.e., cycadophytes, Manshijinyang Coal Mine (39°47'52.62" N, ginkgoaleans, czekanowskialeans and conifers). The 110°10′39.13′′ E), Shenshangou Coal Mine leaf morphology, cuticular characters and diversity (39°42′10.90′′ N, 110°13′44.00′′ E) and Wulanhada pattern of the Czekanowskiales from the Middle Coal Mine (39°42′19.56′′ N, 110°16′14.67′′ E) Jurassic sediments of the northern part of the Ordos (Fig. 1). Basin have been studied and published (Li et al., 2014, 2015a; Sun et al., 2015a, Sun et al., 2015b). A new spe- Tectonically, the Ordos Basin is located in the cies of the genus Eretmophyllum (Ginkgoales), E. nei- western part of North China Block (Hu et al., 2013; mengguensis Li et Sun, was reported by Li et al. (2018) Ritts et al., 2009; Zhao et al., 2015). A relatively con- from the same area. tinuous continental sedimentary strata was formed in the Triassic to the Early Cretaceous and had remained The purpose of this paper is to present a brief undeformed (He, 2003; Ritts et al., 2009). The Meso- review of the plant biodiversity of the Middle Jurassic zoic strata include the Triassic, Jurassic and Creta- PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL Vol. 53 No. 11 2019 1218 YUN-FENG LI et al. J2y 109 00 E J2zh K N K1 40 T1 1 K1 N K1 00 J2zh T e N 2 J2y Q Dongsheng Q T Q N 1 J2zh K 1 Jungar Banner T3y J zh T2e 2 J y Ejin Horo Banner T3y 2 Q J2y K Q N 1 Q N T3y 39 J2zh Xinmiao Q 20 km J1f 20 111 00 E T1 T2e T3y J1f J2y J2zh K1 N Q Fig. 2. Geological map of the northeastern area of the Ordos Basin, China (modified after Geological Survey Institute of Inner Mongolia, 2010). T1, Lower Triassic; T2e, Middle Triassic Ermaying Formation; T3y, Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation; J1f, Lower Jurassic Fuxian Formation; J2y, Middle Jurassic Yan’an Formation; J2zh, Middle Jurassic Zhiluo Formation; K1, Lower Cretaceous; N, Neogene; Q, Quaternary; Trifoliate leaf symbols indicate fossil sites. ceous continental deposits. The Jurassic deposits were of the cuticle to be studied. Hand specimens were divided into four formations, in ascending order, the examined using a stereomicroscope (Olympus SZX10). Lower Jurassic Fuxian Formation, the Middle Juras- The photographs were taken using a Canon digital sic Yan’an, Zhiluo and Anding formations (Huang camera (Canon 5D Mark II) and Keyence digital and Zhou, 1980; He et al., 2004; Sun et al., 2015a). microscope with a camera attachment (Keyence In the northeastern area of the Ordos Basin, the VHX-1000). Plates and figures were made using Adobe well-developed Yan’an Formation unconformably Photoshop CS5, CorelDraw X7 sp2, MapGIS67 and overlies the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation and DGSInfo 1.0. All specimens and preparations are is conformably overlain by the Middle Jurassic Zhiluo stored at the Research Center of Palaeontology and Formation (Fig. 2). The Yan’an Formation consists of Stratigraphy of Jilin University, Changchun, China. two members. The lower member is the main coal- Hand specimens are numbered using prefix capital let- bearing deposits and comprises sandstone, siltstone, ters, which denote the fossil localities.
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