Ian Glasspool

Colby College · Geology Department

Charred fossils from the Wenlock (Wales) and Ludlow (Poland) are evidence of the earliest wildfires to date, showing this phenomenon was contemporaneous with the earliest records of land plant macrofossils. These data indicate fires began to influence Earth system processes alongside those wrought by the advent of an embryophytic terrestrial flora....

The earliest evidence of wildfire is documented from two localities: the early mid-Silurian Pen-y-lan Mudstone, Rumney, Wales (UK), and the late Silurian Winnica Formation, Winnica, Poland. Nematophytes dominate both charcoal assemblages. Reflectance data indicate low-temperature fires with localized intense conditions. Fire temperatures are greate...

Tyrannosaurids are hypothesized to be gregarious, possibly parasocial carnivores engaging in cooperative hunting and extended parental care. A tyrannosaurid (cf. Teratophoneus curriei ) bonebed in the late Campanian age Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah, nicknamed the Rainbows and Unicorns Quarry (RUQ), provides the first opportunity to invest...

Massive changes in terrestrial paleoecology occurred during the Devonian. This period saw the evolution of both seed plants (e.g., Elkinsia and Moresnetia), fully laminate∗ leaves and wood. Wood evolved independently in different plant groups during the Middle Devonian (arborescent lycopsids, cladoxylopsids, and progymnosperms) resulting in the evo...

During the End-Permian mass extinction event (EPME) there is extensive evidence for depletion of oxygen in the marine realm. Atmospheric models based upon biogeochemical cycling predict a comparable decline leading up to this event and have been postulated as a possible driver for marine depletion. However, these models contrast with broadly contem...

Late Permian (Lopingian) volcanoclastic lithologies from the Huopu Mine near Fuyuan, Guzihou Province, SW China have yielded konservat lagerstätte-grade plant macrofossils. These fossils derive from a stratigraphic interval bounded by the mid-Capitanian extinction below and the end Permian extinction above and globally, few anatomically preserved f...

Analyses of bulk petrographic data indicate that during the Late Paleozoic wildfires were more prevalent than at present. We propose that the development of fire systems through this interval was controlled predominantly by the elevated atmospheric oxygen concentration (p(O2)) that mass balance models predict prevailed. At higher levels of p(O2), i...

Significance This is, to our knowledge, the first multiproxy study of climate and associated faunal change for an early Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystem containing an extensive vertebrate fossil record, including early dinosaurs. Our detailed and coupled high-resolution records allow us to sensitively examine the interplay between climate change and...

Amongst the species referred to the genus Lobatopteris Wagner, 1959126. Wagner, R. H. 1959. Some Stephanian pecopterids from NW Spain. Mededelingen van de Geologische Stichting, New Series, 12, 5–23.View all references, three are especially abundant: Lobatopteris micromiltonii (Bertrand ex Corsin) Wagner, Lobatopteris vestita sensu Wagner (1959)126...

Male cones of Ixostrobus hailarensis from Lower Cretaceous strata of the Hailar region of north-east China were re-examined for features of their cuticle and in situ pollen. The cones are loosely aggregated and possess helically arranged peltate microsporophylls containing resin bodies. Microsporophyll cuticle is thick, papillate and has elliptical...

The genus name Schimperstrobus was first used by Deng et al. (2014)1. Deng, S., Jason Hilton, J., Glasspool, I. J. & Dejax, J. 2014. Pollen cones and associated leaves from the Lower Cretaceous of China and a re-evaluation of Mesozoic male cycad cones. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2013.819817[Web of Scienc...

Based upon anatomical evidence, Permian aged gigantopterid fossils are in general reconstructed as climbing or scrambling plants. Gigantonoclea, a genus of adpressed gigantopterid foliage from the Permian of northern China, has been reported to co-occur with hook-like organs that were interpreted as indicating a scrambling/climbing habit. We reinve...

Seed cone scales assigned to the genus Schizolepidopsis are widespread in Late Triassic to Cretaceous Eurasian deposits. They have been linked to the conifer family Pinaceae based on associated vegetative remains, but their exact affinities are uncertain. Recently discovered material from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia reveals important new infor...

Fire has been an important element of the Earth system since the Silurian Period, when vascular plants first evolved and spread on land. Our understanding of the fossil record of fire comes from a diversity of fire residues and fire signals including charcoal (both macroscopic and microscopic), soot and black carbon, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs...

The Nealian regional sub-stage of the Wolfcampian North American regional stage is typified by the Neal Ranch Formation in the Wolf Camp Hills in southwest Texas. This marine sedimentary succession has long been known to contain plant remains, but to date these have not been described systematically. This paper provides a preliminary synopsis of th...

The biopolymer sporopollenin present in the spore/pollen walls of all land plants is regarded as one of the most recalcitrant biomacromolecules (biopolymers), providing protection against a range of abiotic stresses. This long‐term stability is demonstrated by the near‐ubiquitous presence of pollen and spores in the fossil record with spores provid...

Fire and combustion have been an integral part of the Earth system for over 400 million years (Scott and Glasspool, 2006; Bowman et al, 2009) and are now an integral part of our industrial world (Bowman et al., 2011). Studying fire and fire events has significant practical application yet fire science is a discipline still with many unanswered ques...

Permian continental sequences from North China contain previously unrecognized episodes of plant radiation and elevated extinction. The earliest extinction, in the Lower Shihhotse Formation (Roadian, Guadalupian), records a 45% floral species loss and is tentatively correlated with global extinctions amongst dinocephalian reptiles. Two younger exti...

The Lopingian coal measures of southwestern China were deposited within a range of facies associations spanning a spectrum of settings from fluvial to marine carbonate platform. The transitional to terrestrial coal measures are dominated by siliciclastics, but they also contain fifteen laterally extensive marine bands (limestone beds and mudstone)....

Variations of the Earth's atmospheric oxygen concentration (pO2) are thought to be closely tied to the evolution of life, with strong feedbacks between uni- and multicellular life and oxygen. On the geologic timescale, pO2 is regulated by the burial of organic carbon and sulphur, as well as by weathering. Reconstructions of atmospheric O2 for the p...

One of the largest mass extinctions of the past 600 million years (Myr) occurred 200 Myr ago, at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary. The major floral and faunal turnovers have been linked to a marked increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, probably resulting from massive volcanism in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. Future climate change...

During a low sea level stand and wet climate phase at the end of the Mississippian, Lower Palaeozoic limestones at the northern edge of the Illinois Basin were karstified. The caves and fissures that formed were infilled subsequently with clastic sediments of Pennsylvanian age (late Bashkirian–early Moscovian (= Atokan, Duckmantian/Bolsovian, Westp...

Fires are very widespread in the world today and fire has also been common in the deep past. Fire is important in structuring contemporary World vegetation maintaining extensive open vegetation where the climate has the potential to support closed forests. The influence of fire on the structure of vegetation and plant traits present in a community...

Although the earliest evidence of fire, determined from the presence of fossil charcoal, is late Silurian, it is not until the end of the Devonian that there is evidence of a widespread rise of fire events. This increase appears after the rise of forests in the mid-late Devonian and has been linked to a rise in atmospheric oxygen concentration. Fro...

A new fault-associated palcokarst and cave fill has been discovered in north-central Illinois, emplaced in Ordovician limestones. The palcokarst preserves many original solution features, such as oriented grooves, pendants, and half tubes. Many of the ancient cave passages have rounded bottoms and flat roofs. Together these suggest that the origina...

Four megaspore genera: Cystosporites, Rotatisporites, Zonalessporites, and Valvisisporites were isolated from palaeokarst fill deposits of early Middle Pennsylvanian age, hosted within Ordovician limestones at Central Quarry in Central, Kendall County, Illinois, U.S.A. Five uncompacted megaspore species were identified and studied using scanning an...

A high-resolution palynological study is undertaken through the Cobham Lignite Bed (Cobham, Kent, UK) to investigate vegetation response to the rapid climate warming at the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM). The lower laminated lignite records negative carbon isotope ( 13C) excursions (CIE) (marking the PETM onset) in bulk organ...

Vitrinite reflectance (Rr), proximate analysis and carbon isotope composition (δ13C) have been used to characterise coal samples from two zones of Late Carboniferous sediments (Gastern and Ferden) in the Aar massif where they are penetrated by the Lötschberg base tunnel (constructed between 1999 and 2005). Samples are characterised by variable ash...

The Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), a period of intense, global warming about 55 million years ago, has been attributed to a rapid rise in greenhouse gas levels, with dissociation of methane hydrates being the most commonly invoked explanation. It has been suggested previously that high-latitude methane emissions from terrestrial environm...

The inertinite group macerals include fusinite, semifusinite, inertodetrinite, macrinite, micrinite and, funginite and secretinite, which together replace sclerotinite. The macrolithotype fusain comprises fusinite and semifusinite, and is now widely accepted as charcoal formed by wildfire activity. However, alternative origins for fusinite and semi...

The Cobham Lignite Bed includes two lignites, one preceding and including the onset of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) associated with the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, the other formed after the onset but during the CIE. The lower laminated lignite is charcoal-rich. The charcoalifi ed plant fossils, formed as a result of wildfi re activity,...

Qualitative and quantitative coal petrological analyses have been undertaken on the laminated lignite at the base of the Cobham Lignite Bed, from Scalers Hill, Kent, England. The maximum negative carbon isotope excursion, which marks the beginning of the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), occurs near the top of the laminated lignite. The lig...

The Cobham Lignite Bed includes two lignites, one preceding and including the onset of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) associated with the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, the other formed after the onset but during the CIE. The lower laminated lignite is charcoal-rich. The charcoalifi ed plant fossils, formed as a result of wildfi re activity,...

Anatomically preserved Earliest Devonian plant mesofossils from a stream section in the Welsh Borderland are quantitatively demonstrated to be charcoal, and are the pyrolysis products of ancient wildfires. These wildfire events preserved a diversity of plants and a level of anatomical detail that is unrivalled by other Lochkovian localities, and as...

By comparing Silurian through end Permian [≈250 million years (Myr)] charcoal abundance with contemporaneous macroecological changes in vegetation and climate we aim to demonstrate that long-term variations in fire occurrence and fire system diversification are related to fluctuations in Late Paleozoic atmospheric oxygen concentration. Charcoal, a...

Although bireflectance measurements are routine, to date they have been limited to selected single point measurements. This study uses a 360° rotating polarizer in the incident light path combined with digital imaging to map the optical bireflectance of a polished specimen over the complete field of view, a system herein referred to as ‘Bireflectan...

Hot pyroclastic flow deposits often entomb and preserve vegetation as charcoal. When studied in polished section, this charcoal is highly reflective. Novel data from experimentally charred woods demonstrate that reflectance increases with both temperature and time. At temperatures above 250 °C, reflectance rises rapidly for the first hour, effectiv...

Mississippian, Tournaisian, lycopsid megaspores isolated from lacustrine deposits of the Horton Bluff Formation at Three Mile Plains in Nova Scotia, Canada, are identified and illustrated by scanning electron microscopy. Three morphospecies of Sublagenicula: S. brasilliensis (Dijkstra) Glasspool, S. dulcis (Dijkstra) Dybová-Jachowicz et al., and S....

Reinvestigation of the first described gigantopterid plant, Gigantopteris (Megalopteris) nicotianaefolia Schenk ex Potonié, 1902 from the Permian of China, has been conducted using the original specimens documented in 1883. The application of new techniques has permitted a comprehensive review of their morphology. This study represents the first ph...

A new permineralized fossil plant assemblage is described from volcaniclastic tuff collected in the Upper Permian (Wuchiapigian to Changhsingian) Xuanwei Formation at Shanjiaoshu mine, Guizhou Province, China. The assemblage is fragmentary but contains a small sphenopsid strobilus, a partial strobilus of a lepidodendralean lycopsid, pinnae of the f...

Rare basal Prídolí plant fossils, which resemble the rhyniophytoid Hollandophyton colliculum and have exceptional three-dimensional cellular anatomy, are preserved as charcoal. As such, these fossils from Ludford Lane in the Welsh Borders are evidence of the earliest recorded wildfire and are the first documented from before the Devonian. The fossi...

Foliage of Late Palaeozoic Cathaysian gigantopterids encompasses a large diversity of forms, both inter- and intraspecific, and includes many with striking resemblance to the leaves of extant woody dicotyledons. Similarities include leaf size, shape, margin and venation. Other vegetative similarities between angiosperms and gigantopterids include t...

Foliar feeding traces as evidence of plant–animal interaction are reported for the first time on gigantopterid plants from the Late Palaeozoic Cathaysian flora. Frequently occurring marginal, non-marginal and apical leaf-feeding traces have been identified in two gigantopterid species, Gigantonoclea lagrelii and Gigantonoclea hallei, from the late...

The study of six bulk coal samples from the Early Permian Vryheid Formation of the Karoo Basin, South Africa has revealed the importance of wildfire in this coal-forming environment. Inertinite is a major constituent of these coals and was predominantly produced by wildfire. The accumulation of the peat in this setting was both autochthonous and hy...

The study of material from selected seams within the Sydney Basin of Australia and the Witbank Basin of South Africa revealed the need for a review of Permian Gondwana megaspore taxonomy. The study material has been integrated with a taxonomic review of previously published Permian megaspore data. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of the study...

The Permian megaspore species Singhisporites tubbus Glasspool was incorrectly erected. A repository for the type material was named, but no specimen numbers assigned, and as originally described [Glasspool (2000) Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol., 110, 209–227] is invalid. Further, in the erecting the species, paratypes were incorrectly designated. This pap...

A suite of techniques, including coal petrology, micropalynology, mesofossil analysis, and macroscopic appearance has been used to examine the Early Permian, South African, Witbank Basin No. 2 seam from a sample locality near Ogies. This coal appears to be similar in its palynological and petrographic composition to other coals of this interval fro...

Petrographic and mesofossil analyses of plies from the Late Permian, Lower Whybrow coal, New South Wales, Australia have revealed a significant fire event in both the swamp setting and the hinterland. The fire event is characterised by a change in the maceral composition, the seam during this interval being dominated by inertinite, especially semif...

More than 300 megaspore specimens have been recovered from samples from the Late Permian, Lower Whybrow coal seam of the Wittingham Coal Measures of the Sydney Basin. Only two species are recognised: Singhisporites surangei (Singh) Potonié, emend. and a new species of Singhisporites. Species distribution within the seam is controlled by a major fir...

Ten megaspore species isolated from Moscow Basin lignites of Lower Carboniferous (Viséan) age have been studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). These species belong to seven megaspore genera: Lagenicula, Sublagenicula, Crassilagenicula, Setosisporites, Zonalesporites, Caudatosporites, and Cystosporites. Megaspores of...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, 2000.