Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Silurian and Lower Devonian plant assemblages from the Anglo-Welsh Basin: a palaeobotanical and palynological synthesis

Edwards, Dianne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-4395 and Richardson, John B. 2004. Silurian and Lower Devonian plant assemblages from the Anglo-Welsh Basin: a palaeobotanical and palynological synthesis. Geological Journal 39 (34) , pp. 375-402. 10.1002/gj.997

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

A comprehensive survey of plant assemblages from Upper Silurian (Gorstian–Přídolí) and Lower Devonian (Lochkovian–Pragian) localities in South Wales and the Welsh Borderland is presented, together with some comments on recent improvements in dating and correlation. Spore assemblages provide a stratigraphic framework for plant evolutionary studies and, along with microvertebrates, enable correlation from continental to marine rocks, i.e. near-shore to shelf deposits. While it is recognized that the assemblages provide the most complete and extensive record of the history of vascular plants in a restricted geographical area during the time interval, it seems likely that major evolutionary innovation occurred elsewhere. The plants themselves display a number of types of fossilization. Particularly important are the pyrite permineralizations which have helped in the elucidation of the ultrastructure of tracheids in early vascular plants. Minute, coalified, relatively uncompressed fossils (mesofossils) from the Přídolí Lochkovian of the Welsh Borderland are hypothesized to be the products of wildfire, the earliest records to date. In addition to displaying often exquisite anatomical detail, the sporangia contain spores which have been linked to those in dispersed assemblages. Such relationships are helpful in the reconstruction of local and regional vegetation, even in the absence of meso- and megafossils. However, because these fossils are allochthonous and preserved in fluvial sediments, the habitats of the plants remain uncertain. A new hypothesis suggests that interfluvial areas, where calcretes are interpreted as relicts of vertisols and a seasonally dry climate, provided refugia in the Lower Devonian for the cryptospore-producing plants which dominated Ordovician and Lower Silurian land vegetation, while vascular plants colonized areas in the immediate vicinity of rivers. Variation in regional vegetation is explored via comparisons of composition of spore assemblages in southern Britain and Scotland and timing of appearances of derived taxa, integrated with limited information on the spore producers.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects: Q Science > QE Geology
Q Science > QK Botany
Uncontrolled Keywords: bryophytes; calcretes; cryptospores; homoiohydry; Lochkovian; megafossils; mesofossils; miospores; taphonomic bias;tracheids; wildfires
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN: 0072-1050
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2022 08:52
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/1324

Citation Data

Cited 82 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item