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Fossil plants as indicators of Late Palaeozoic plate positions
Abstract
Fossil plant records from a late Carboniferous to early Permian time interval are reviewed for the data that they give on connections and migration routes between floristic provinces, and their palaeolatitudinal positions. Caution is urged in using fragmentary leaf remains as a basis for recognizing affinity between floristic provinces, as illustrated by reference to the genera Phyllotheca and Glossopteris. The distribution of some 38 plant genera from a range of late Palaeozoic areas and localities is made the basis for ordinating them in the form of a dendrogram. An early Permian plate reassembly, based on that of Lin et al. 1985, is assessed in terms of its compatibility with the palaeobotanical evidence.
... Such characteristics suggest a warm and humid climate with weak drier periods (perhaps seasons), i.e. more or less Cathaysian climatic conditions. The analysis of the Permian phytogeographic sequence in the Arabian peninsula domain clearly demonstrates that the con®guration proposed by Chaloner and Creber (1978), closely linking Arabia and the South China block, became eective only during early middle Permian time (Metcalfe, 1998). Thus, the movement of the Arabian plate into tropical latitudes led to a closeness between this domain and the South China block during the middle Permian, regardless of the Carboniferous location of this block. ...
... A review by Ziegler (1990) concluded that the Cathaysian vegetation consisted of tropical rainforest populated, mainly, by arborescent lycopsids (now recorded as well in the Gharif Formation), sphenophytes and gigantopterids. Thus, South China was in very low latitudes during Permian times, a unanimous conclusion even in contradictory Permian reconstructions (Chaloner and Creber, 1978;Li et al., 1993;Ross, 1995;Scotese and Langford, 1995). ...
Discovery of a middle Permian ostracod fauna in the marine Khuff Formation (Sultanate of Oman), combined with palaeobotanical data from the immediately underlying continental Gharif Formation, supports new interpretations of the palaeobiogeography of the Tethys during the late Palaeozoic. A mixed ostracod fauna existed on the Arabian platform. This new record of Permian ostracods, combined with recent data obtained in other Tethyan areas, emphasizes the close relationship between the south-western Tethys realm and South China. The macro- and microfloral assemblages of the continental Gharif Formation demonstrate that this palaeoflora represents a true mixed association in which Gondwanan, Cathaysian and Euramerian elements are intermingled. Two main models exist for the reconstruction of Pangaea during the late Palaeozoic. Both ostracods and palaeobotanical evidence favour the reduction of the oceanic area between South China and Arabian plate as in the B Pangaea model favoured by recent palaeomagnetic data.
... Presence of similar morphological features in plant fossils of different floristic provinces has been explained by Meyen (1969Meyen ( , 1971aMeyen ( ,b, 1987, Asama (1969) and Archangelsky and Arrondo (1969) on the basis of parallel evolution and they have argued that such morphologically similar forms possess different types of fructification and in all likelihood belong to different botanical traits. Chaloner and Crebe (1983) have also discussed the relationship and affinity of commonly distributed genera and accentuated that in the absence of fertile structures such forms may not be related to each other. The discoveries of different types of fertile structures in morphologically allied fossils also support this hypothesis (Meyen, 1982). ...
... Similarly Mexiglossa, a Jurassic leaf (Fig. 9G), is similar to Glossopteris and is recorded from Mexico (Delevoryas, 1969;Delevoryas and Person, 1975). Chaloner and Crebe (1983) have expressed doubt about the botanical relationship of Mexiglossa, nevertheless glossopterid related forms such as Mexiglossa in northern floras show morphological analogy that should not be explained away. ...
During Carboniferous and Permian Periods the plant fossil assemblages of northern and southern hemispheres were distributed in four floral provinces and each flora had its own characteristics. Pteridosperms were dominant in the Euramerian floras of Europe and America; cordaitales and equisetales along with Angaridium/Angaropteris represent the Angara flora of Russia, Russian federation and Far East provinces; Gigantopteris flora characterizes the Cathaysian province of China, Japan and south-east Asian countries; and Glossopteris flora are present in Southern Hemispheric land masses of Gondwana which includes India, Australia, Africa, South America and Antarctica. Well defined floral provinces quite often show the intermixing of different floristic elements exemplifying the presence of mixed floras. The occurrence of mixed floras suggests that they have two modes of distribution. One distribution pattern shows mixed floras along the marginal basins of the Tethyan region during the Middle and Late Permian. Another pattern is evident in the Gondwana floras where Glossopteris floras contain a number of extra-Gondwanic elements. Likewise, some Euramerian, Cathaysian and Angaran floras show the possible presence of glossopterid related elements having comparative morphological features as part of the flora.
... Presence of similar morphological features in plant fossils of different floristic provinces has been explained by Meyen (1969Meyen ( , 1971aMeyen ( ,b, 1987, Asama (1969) and Archangelsky and Arrondo (1969) on the basis of parallel evolution and they have argued that such morphologically similar forms possess different types of fructification and in all likelihood belong to different botanical traits. Chaloner and Creber (1983) have also discussed the relationship and affinity of commonly distributed genera and accentuated that in the absence of fertile structures such forms may not be related to each other. The discoveries of different types of fertile structures in morphologically allied fossils also support this hypothesis (Meyen, 1982). ...
... Similarly Mexiglossa, a Jurassic leaf (Fig. 9G), is similar to Glossopteris and is recorded from Mexico (Delevoryas, 1969;Delevoryas and Person, 1975). Chaloner and Creber (1983) have expressed doubt about the botanical relationship of Mexiglossa, nevertheless glossopterid related forms such as Mexiglossa in northern floras show morphological analogy that should not be explained away. ...
... There have been conflicting opinions as to whether the Euramerican and Cathaysian realms should be recognised as distinct phytochoria (e.g. Halle, 1937;Li, 1963;Havlena, 1970;Chaloner and Meyen, 1973;Li and Yao, 1982;Chaloner and Creber, 1988;Wu, 1995;Tian et al., 1996;Sun, 1996;Tian et al., 2000;Sun, 2001;Fluteau et al., 2001). In the most recent review of the Cathaysian floras, Sun (2006) considered them to be distinct from the Euramerican floras, being characterised by the endemic genera Gigantopteris, Gigantonoclea, Cathaysiopteris, Tingia, Paratingia, Fascipteris, Emplecopteris and Emplecopteridium. ...
... Various analytical methods have been developed to determine biogeographical patterns both in living and fossil organisms each of which has its merits and weaknesses (see Brenchley and Harper (1998) review and Chaloner and Creber (1988) for earlier example of Late Palaeozoic floristic analysis). We have used three different methods in this study, to show different aspects of the data. ...
Wetland plant communities persisted though much of the Pennsylvanian in Euramerica and are the dominant coal forming vegetation in this region. Distribution of these floras show a dramatic decline at the end of the Carboniferous with many of the plant genera and species becoming extinct by the onset of the Permian. This has been correlated with climate change and in particular aridification associated with northwards plate motion and Euramerica moving into the doldrums, but is also associated with the Variscan orogeny and forefront destroying large areas of formerly lowland basinal settings. Other factors may include Pennsylvanian glaciations as evidenced by cyclothem and rhythmical deposition in lowlying wetland settings, and change in eustatic base level. Evidence from Euramerica demonstrates extinction of this kind of wetland biota by the earliest Permian and the development of drier floras including conifer dominated assemblages. However, new data from other parts of the world, most notably North China, confirm this model and highlight the presence of similar coal swamps ranging from the Late Pennsylvanian through the Permian. In this paper we summarise and synthesize recent taxonomic and systematic investigations undertaken on the plant fossils from the Pennsylvanian Benxi Formation – the oldest recognised wetland plant community in China – and the Early Permian Taiyuan Formation – the best preserved wetland plant community from China. Results indicate a remarkable similarity of the Pennsylvanian–Early Permian floras of North China with the older assemblages in the Pennsylvanian of Euramerica, and the presence of typical ‘Euramerican’ coal swamp plant families, genera and in some cases species in China. Conclusions include the presence of the Ameriosinian phytogeographical realm uniting Euramerica and northern Cathaysia at this time, coal swamps in the Permian of North China evolving from a ‘Euramerican’ origin, and the dramatic floral turnover at the end of the Carboniferous representing a regional event rather than a global extinction episode. Patterns of plant distribution through this interval have profound implications on established palaeogeographical models and support continental connection between Euramerica and Cathaysia before the end of the Carboniferous, contradicting ideas of Cathaysian island biogeography and biotic distinction. Continental connection appears to be related to glacial eustatic low-stand and previously shallow marine environments becoming vegetated. Also important is the fact that in both Euramerica and North China the pattern of floristic demise within wetland plant communities are similar to each other, implying the same causal mechanisms, with plants occupying waterlogged positions being the most severely devastated. However, ecosystem demise occurred at the end of the Carboniferous in Euramerica and in the middle Permian in North China, but in both cases the primary cause was climate change.
... (6) Floral paleobiogeography where definition of realms and provinces is clear, dating is good, dispersal capacity is relatively low and stratigraphic range is short (cf. Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Asama, 1976: Chaloner andCreber, 1988). Positioning of terranes based on interpretations of fossil floras should be done with caution, as floral province boundaries are not everywhere sharply defined (Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Axelrod, 1986;Li, 1986;Chaloner and Creber, 1988). ...
... Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Asama, 1976: Chaloner andCreber, 1988). Positioning of terranes based on interpretations of fossil floras should be done with caution, as floral province boundaries are not everywhere sharply defined (Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Axelrod, 1986;Li, 1986;Chaloner and Creber, 1988). At a similar level of usefulness are paleociimatic data based on occurrences of coals, reefs, evaporites or tillites (cf. ...
Regional terrane analysis has been combined with a global evaluation of plate kinematics to produce a new tectonic model for the Mesozoic evolution of western North America and its associated marginal seas. The model employs a two-tiered data reliability ranking system to resolve conflicts within data sets. The lower tier of the ranking system involves the assignment of a numerical rank to paleomagnetic and/or paleobiogeographic data based on each data set's reliability. The upper tier of the ranking system places the paleomagnetic and paleobiogeographic data in perspective by assigning a relative order of importance to different types of data. The most reliable data are considered to be “departure” (rift) and “arrival” (collision) times that are tightly constrained by independent data sets. Evidence of subduction and/or strike-slip motion also ranks high in the master ranking system. Paleomagnetic and vertebrate paleobiogeographic data come next in the hierarchy, followed by invertebrate and floral paleobiogeographic data. Application of this approach to a case study, the “Baja British Columbia” controversy, has resulted in a coherent model for the entire region.Results derived from the application of this modelling approach to the problem of the Mesozoic assembly of western North America suggest that its evolution may be modeled using a minimum of 57 large terranes. Oblique convergence may have been the dominant tectonic process along the western North American margin during the Mesozoic, causing large-scale latitudinal transport of many exotic terranes. The motions of the terranes produced a number of marginal seas (“Yukonia”, etc.) that were short-lived but important components of western margin tectonics. A combination of collision events, side-swiping episodes and changes in plate kinematics led to the initiation of several regional tectonic upheavals, including the Nevadan and Sevier orogenies.
... These open paleodata resources also make paleobiological data accessible to scientists from allied disciplines, powering the next generation of convergent research. For example, the fossil record is used by sedimentologists and economic geologists studying facies relationships and employing biostratigraphic controls for correlating rock strata (Metcalfe & Nicoll 2007), structural geologists and geophysicists seeking biogeographic constraints on reconstructions of former tectonic plate positions (Chaloner & Creber 1988, Wright et al. 2013), paleoclimatologists building proxy-based reconstructions of past climates (Bartlein et al. 2011, Marsicek et al. 2018, Routson et al. 2019, and archaeologists seeking to understand how past societies shaped and were shaped by their environment (e.g., O'Regan et al. 2011, Kohler et al. 2018). ...
... Plant distribution during the Carboniferous varied in space as well as time and several geographical floristic units (phytochoria) have been distinguished (e.g. Chaloner and Lacey 1973;Chaloner and Meyen 1973;Vakhrameev et al. 1978;Rowley et al. 1985;Meyen 1987;Allen and Dineley 1988;Chaloner and Creber 1988;Thomas 1991, 2019;Wnuk 1996;Cleal 2020). However, the degree of floristic provincialism changed dramatically during this time period as the global climatic changes resulting from the developing Late Paleozoic Ice Age took effect. ...
In the Carboniferous, terrestrial vegetation became widespread, diverse and abundant. The resulting fossil record has proved to be an effective biostratigraphic tool for intra- and interbasinal correlations. Besides palaeogeographic configurations, Carboniferous plant biostratigraphy is affected by a transition from greenhouse conditions during most of the Mississippian to an icehouse climate in the Pennsylvanian. The greenhouse Mississippian climate resulted in weak provincialism, with a cosmopolitan flora ranging from the tropics to middle latitudes. The global cooling around the Mississippian - Pennsylvanian boundary enhanced development of a latitudinal climatic zonation and related floral provincialism. These changes are expressed in the recognition of distinct realms or kingdoms, where the tropical Amerosinian Realm (or Euramerican and Cathaysian realms) is surrounded by the Angaran and Gondwanan realms occupying middle to high latitude of the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. Floristic endemism in the Pennsylvanian precludes development of a global macrofloral biostratigraphy. Instead, each realm or area has its own biostratigraphic scheme. Poorer and less diverse floras of the Gondwanan and Angaran realms resulted in the establishment of relatively low-resolution macrofloral biostratigraphic schemes. Higher resolution macrofloral zonations exist only in the tropical Amerosinian Realm due to diverse and abundant floras dominated by free-sporing and early seed plants occupying extensive wetlands.
... The magenta circles are the elements of the Euramerian fl ora and the orange X's represent the Southwestern United States fl ora. The map was compiled from Meyen (1970), Chaloner and Meyen (1973), Lacey (1975), Chaloner and Creber (1988), and Şengör et al. (1988). This map shows that plant distribution in the Permian was almost entirely climate controlled and not so much isolation controlled, as Ziegler (1990) correctly emphasized almost two decades ago, because there were almost no isolated pieces of land. ...
... The earliest spores in tetrads (then of Middle-Late Ordovician age) were shown to be succeeded by the first cuticle, stomata and xylem tubes, entering the stratigraphical record slightly later (Chaloner 1988, fig. 1). Chaloner and Creber (1988) reviewed records of 38 Pennsylvanian to Early Permian fossil plant genera in terms of the information this dataset provides on connections and migratory routes between phytogeographical provinces. This study largely focussed on the use of fossil plant records to determine palaeolatitudinal positions. ...
William G. (‘Bill’) Chaloner FRS (1928–2016) was one of the world’s leading palaeobotanists and palynologists. He developed a love of natural science at school which led to a penchant for palaeobotany at university. Bill graduated in 1950 from the University of Reading, and remained there for his PhD, supervised by Tom Harris, on the spores of Carboniferous lycopods. After completing his PhD in 1953, Bill undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the USA. He returned to the UK and, in 1956, began a long and distinguished academic career at four colleges of the University of London. His first position was at University College London, where he continued to work on Paleozoic palaeobotany and palynology. His 1958 paper on the effects of fluctuating sea levels on Carboniferous pollen-spore assemblages proved highly influential. Bill moved to a Chair at Birkbeck College in 1972, began to use the scanning electron microscope and was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1976. He is the only pre-Quaternary palynologist to have been given the latter honour. In 1979, Bill was appointed to the Chair of Botany at Bedford College where he began to apply plant fossil evidence to general scientific problems. He began to work on arthropod–plant interactions, fossil charcoal and growth rings in wood. Bill was awarded the Medal for Scientific Excellence by the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists in 1984. Bedford College and Royal Holloway College merged in 1985, and Bill moved to the amalgamated institution. Bill continued to investigate very diverse topics, and added the analysis of leaf stomata, global environmental change and molecular palaeontology to his portfolio. Following retirement in 1994, Bill continued his research and teaching at Royal Holloway, University of London. His final paper was published in 2016, bringing to an end a research career of 66 years.
... The presence of a Venezuelan flora that links the region biogeographically to the central and southwestern USA suggests that a certain semi-arid vegetation was once distributed continuously from the extreme south of Laurasia to the extreme Chaloner and Meyen, 1973;Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Kremp, 1977, Meyen, 1987Chaloner and Creber, 1988;Ziegler, 1990;Scotese and Mckerrow, 1990;Ricardi, 1994;Anderson et al., 1999;Iannuzi and Rösler, 2000;DiMichele et al., 2001b;Rees et al., 2002;Césari, 2007). northeast of Gondwanaland. ...
... Glossopterids are essentially the Gondwana forms and their records in other floral provinces have often been doubted in the absence of associated fertile structure (Edwards, 1955;Alvin & Chaloner, 1970;Chaloner & Crebe, 1983;Li Xingxue, 1986;Maheshwari & Bajpai, 1988 leaves in association with northern floras. Meyen (1969) discussed the authenticity of glossopterid leaves in Angara flora and after careful scrutiny states, "It does not mean, however, that Glossopteris is completely absent from Angara flora. ...
Srivastava AK 1992. Alien elements in the Gondwana flora of India. Palaeobotanist 40 : 147·156. The occurrence of northern hemispheric taxa in Gondwana is considered as alien to the Glossopteris and Dicroidium floras of Southern Hemisphere. The morphology, evolutionary lineages, and stratigraphic distribution of Euramerian, Cathaysian and Angaran forms in the Gondwana flora of India are examined in view of their latest discoveries in the Permian and Triassic sequences. The study indicates that some of the elements of contemporaneous floras possess characteristic affiliation with the Gondwana flora, likewise some of the Gondwana elements exemplify the comparative characters of northern forms. Possible linkages, association, existence and ancestry of the Gondwana flora vis a vis Northern floras are discussed.
... The magenta circles are the elements of the Euramerian fl ora and the orange X's represent the Southwestern United States fl ora. The map was compiled from Meyen (1970), Chaloner and Meyen (1973), Lacey (1975), Chaloner and Creber (1988), and Şengör et al. (1988). This map shows that plant distribution in the Permian was almost entirely climate controlled and not so much isolation controlled, as Ziegler (1990) correctly emphasized almost two decades ago, because there were almost no isolated pieces of land. ...
The Tethyan realm stretches across the Old World from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans along the Alpine-Himalayan mountain ranges and extends into their fore- and hinterlands as far as the old continental margins of the now-vanished Tethyan oceans reached. It contains the Tethyside superorogenic complex, including the orogenic complexes of the Cimmerides and the Alpides, the products of the closure of the Paleo- and the Neo-Tethyan oceans, respectively. Paleo-Tethys was the oceanic realm that originated when the late Paleozoic Pangea was assembled by the final Uralide-Scythide-Hercynide-Great-Appalachide collisions. It was a composite ocean, i.e., not one formed by the rifting of its opposing margins, and its floor was already being consumed along both Laurasia-and Gondwana-Land-flanking subduction zones when it first ppeared. The Gondwana-Land-flanking subduction systems, in particular, created mostly extensional arc families that successively led to various Paleo-Tethyan marginal basins, the last group of which was the oceans that united to form the Neo-Tethys. The Paleo-Tethys may have become an entirely continent-locked ocean through the construction, to the east of it, of a Cathaysian bridge uniting various elements of China and Indochina into an isthmian link between Laurasia and Gondwana-Land during the latest Permian, inhibiting any deep-sea connection between the Paleo-Tethys and the Panthalassa. That land bridge may have been responsible for the peculiarities in the distribution of the latest Permian-early Triassic Dicynodonts and possibly some brachiopods, benthic marine microorganisms, and land plants. The existence of the Cathaysian bridge seems to have helped the formation of anoxic conditions in the Paleo-Tethys. In fact, it seems that the major Permian extinctions began in the Paleo-Tethys and were really mainly felt in it and in areas infl uenced by it. This isolated setting of the Paleo-Tethys we refer to as a Ptolemaic condition, in reference to the isolated oceans Claudius Ptolemy had depicted on a geocratic Earth in his world map in the second century AD. Ptolemaic conditions are not uncommoni n the history of Earth. Today, such a condition is represented by the Mediterranean and its smaller dependencies such as the Black Sea and the South Caspian Ocean. Para-Tethys in the Neogene had a similar but even more isolated setting. As we see in all these late Cenozoic cases, such Ptolemaic oceans have a major infl uence on the evolution of the biosphere. The Paleo-Tethys seems to have had a much larger impact than any of its successors owing to its immense size and may have been the key player in the so-called "end-Permian" extinction, which, in reality, was a mid to late Permian affair, with some late phases even in the earliest Triassic. The Permian extinction happened in at least two main phases, one in the Guadalupian and the other near the end of the Lopingian, and in each phase different animal and plant groups became extinct diachronously, phasing out according to the degree they were infl uenced by the developing anoxia within the Paleo-Tethys. What these conclusions suggest is that when investigating the causes of past events, regional geology must always form the foundation of all other considerations. Many speculations concerning the Permian extinction events cannot be adequately assessed without placing their implications into the geography of the times to which they are relevant. A purely "process-orientated" research that downplays or ignores regional geology and attempts to ape physics and chemistry, as is now prevalent in the United States and in western Europe and regrettably encouraged by the funding organizations, is doomed to failure. Copyright
... Presumably, E. novaeguineae dispersed to the Birds Head during an earlier connection, which may have been possible as the result of a persistent close relationship of the island terrane and the Australian continent (including New Guinea) (Polhemus & Polhemus, 1998). Two of the major terranes that make up the Birds Head, Kemum and Misool, are clearly continental in origin: both Australia and the Birds Head share fossil Glossopteris flora from the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic (Chaloner & Creber, 1990), and the two have similar paleomagnetic polar wander paths from the late Carboniferous and Triassic (Giddings, Sunata & Pigram, 1993). Paleomagnetic data indicate that the Kemum Terrane detached from the main continental landmass in the early Cretaceous and had a history of movement independent of the Australian craton until at least the Miocene (Pigram & Davies, 1987;Giddings et al., 1993). ...
The island of New Guinea lies in one of the most tectonically active regions in the world and has long provided outstanding opportunity for studies of biogeography. Several chelid turtles, of clear Gondwanal origin, occur in New Guinea; all species except one, the endemic Elseya novaeguineae, are restricted to the lowlands south of the Central Ranges. Elseya novaeguineae is found throughout New Guinea. We use mitochondrial and nuclear gene variation among populations of E. novaeguineae throughout its range to test hypotheses of recent extensive dispersal versus more ancient persistence in New Guinea. Its genetic structure bears the signature of Miocene vicariance events. The date of the divergence between a Birds Head (Kepala Burung) clade and clades north and south of the Central Ranges is estimated to be 19.8 Mya [95% highest posterior density (HPD) interval of 13.3–26.8 Mya] and the date between the northern and southern clades is estimated to be slightly more recent at 17.4 Mya (95% HPD interval of 11.0–24.5 Mya). The distribution of this endemic species is best explained by persistent occupation (or early invasion and dispersal) and subsequent isolation initiated by the dramatic landform changes that were part of the Miocene history of the island of New Guinea, rather than as a response to the contemporary landscape of an exceptionally effective disperser. The driving influence on genetic structure appears to have been isolation arising from a combination of: (1) the early uplift of the Central Ranges and establishment of a north-south drainage divide; (2) development of the Langguru Fold Belt; (3) the opening of Cenderawasih Bay; and (4) the deep waters of the Aru Trough and Cenderawasih Bay that come close to the current coastline to maintain isolation of the Birds Head through periods of sea level minima (−135 m). The dates of divergence of turtle populations north and south of the ranges predate the telescopic uplift of the central ranges associated with oblique subduction of the Australian Plate beneath the Pacific Plate. Their isolation was probably associated with earlier uplift and drainage isolation driven by the accretion of island terranes to the northern boundary of the Australian craton that occurred earlier than the oblique subduction. The opening of Cenderawasih Bay is too recent (6 Mya) to have initiated the isolation of the Birds Head populations from those of the remainder of New Guinea, although its deep waters will have served to sustain the isolation through successive sea level changes. The molecular evidence suggests that the Birds Head docked with New Guinea some time before the Central Ranges emerged as a barrier to turtle dispersal. Overall, deep genetic structure of the species complex reflects events and processes that occurred during Miocene, whereas structure within each clade across the New Guinea landscape relates to Pliocene and Pleistocene times.
... Thus, both paleobotanical and marine paleontological data on fusulinids, ostracods and brachiopods from South China and the Oman area (and the entire Arabian plate) necessitate a reconsideration of the paleogeographical location of the Arabian plate during the Permian. South China was positioned at very low latitudes during Permian times, as is unanimously assumed by various authors, even when their paleogeographical reconstructions for the Permian are con£icting (Chaloner and Creber, 1978; Li et al., 1993; Ross, 1995; Scotese and McKerrow, 1990; Scotese and Langford, 1995; Torcq et al., 1997). However, the new paleobotanical and paleontological data do not support the position of the Arabian plate suggested by Scotese and McKerrow (1990) , who favor another paleogeographical reconstruction. ...
... The uncertainties increase when working at the species rather than genus level. For instance, although not infallible (see comments by Chaloner and Creber 1988 ), it is highly probable that a lanceolate Permian leaf with pronounced midrib and reticulate venation will be identified correctly as belonging to the genus Glossopteris. However, it is far less certain that it will be assigned to the " correct " species of that genus. ...
The most recent global "icehouse-hothouse" climate transition in earth history began during the Permian. Warmer polar conditions, relative to today, then persisted through the Mesozoic and into the Cenozoic. We focus here on two Permian stages, the Sakmarian (285-280 Ma) and the Wordian (267-264 Ma; also known as the Kazanian), integrating floral with lithological data to determine their climates globally. These stages postdate the Permo- Carboniferous glaciation but retain a moderately steep equator-to-pole gradient, judging by the level of floral and faunal differentiation. Floral data provide a particularly useful means of interpreting terrestrial paleoclimates, often revealing information about climate gradations between "dry" and "wet" end-member lithological indicators such as evaporites and coals. We applied multivariate statistical analyses to the Permian floral data to calibrate the nature of floral and geographical transitions as an aid to climate interpretation. We then classified Sakmarian and Wordian terrestrial environments in a series of regional biomes ("climate zones") by integrating information on leaf mor- phologies and phytogeography with patterns of eolian sand, evaporite, and coal distributions. The data-derived biomes are compared here with modeled biomes resulting from new Sakmarian and Wordian climate model simulations for a range of CO2 levels (one, four, and eight times the present levels), presented in our companion article. We provide a detailed grid cell comparison of the biome data and model results by geographic region, introducing a more rigorous approach to global paleoclimate studies. The simulations with four times the present CO2 levels (4#CO2) match the observations better than the simulations with 1#CO2, and, at least in some areas, the simulations with 8#CO2 match slightly better than those for 4#CO2. Overall, the 4#CO2 and 8#CO2 biome simulations match the data reasonably well in the equatorial and midlatitudes as well as the northern high latitudes. However, even these highest CO2 levels fail to produce the temperate climates in high southern latitudes indicated by the data. The lack of sufficient ocean heat transport into polar latitudes may be one of the factors responsible for this cold bias of the climate model. Another factor could be the treatment of land surface processes and the lack of an interactive vegetation module. We discuss strengths and limitations of the data and model approaches and indicate future research directions.
... The Angaran and Gondwanan floristic provinces were located in high northern and southern latitudes, respectively, during the late Palaeozoic (Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Chaloner and Creber, 1988) and probably experienced similar strongly seasonal cool climates (Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Ziegler, 1990). Similar climatic regimes may have benefited the survival in each region of closely related plant and animal groups, resulting in the observed amphipolarity of Permian invertebrate faunas and possibly floras. ...
Permineralized Noeggerathiopsis leaves from the Permian Bainmedart Coal Measures of eastern Antarctica are characterized by prominent abaxial stomatiferous furrows protected by dense epidermal hairs. The leaves lack fibre bundles characteristic of Euramerian cordaitaleans, but are similar to late Palaeozoic Angaran cordaite leaves of the genus Rufloria. Other leaf morphological characters suggest a possible close relationship between Noeggerathiopsis and glossopterids. The striking similarity between the morphology and anatomy of Angaran and Gondwanan cordaites and several other plant groups suggests that not all of these features are convergent, and that some floristic interchange between these opposing high-latitude provinces may have occurred during the late Palaeozoic. The strong stomatal protection in Noeggerathiopsis leaves preserved in high-latitude, paludal deposits suggests that these structural features are not strictly xeromorphic in function.
... However, as the latest faunal data stated previously suggests, at least the CT Zone should be Asselian-Sakmarian in age. Zhu (1993a) and Tang (1997) have appended valuable palynological data from N. China, while Ouyang and Hou (1999) summarized the palynological information from the aforementioned studies, and refined the Chaloner and Creber (1988), Nei et al. (1990) and Ziegler (1990 ...
The Late Carboniferous–Early Permian strata cropping out in northern Shanxi Province, China contain a continuous and varied fossil record, making this succession a classical locality for the study of palynology during that interval in North China. Abundant, diverse and well-preserved miospores are recorded and illustrated from the Penchi Formation to the Shansi Formation, comprising 191 species assigned to 67 genera, as well as some scolecodonts. Three new species (Neoraistrickia leiclavatus sp. nov., Indospora verrucatus sp. nov., Balteosporites tomentosus sp. nov.) are proposed.
... The presence of a Venezuelan flora that links the region biogeographically to the central and southwestern USA suggests that a certain semi-arid vegetation was once distributed continuously from the extreme south of Laurasia to the extreme Chaloner and Meyen, 1973;Chaloner and Lacey, 1973;Kremp, 1977, Meyen, 1987Chaloner and Creber, 1988;Ziegler, 1990;Scotese and Mckerrow, 1990;Ricardi, 1994;Anderson et al., 1999;Iannuzi and Rösler, 2000;DiMichele et al., 2001b;Rees et al., 2002;Césari, 2007). northeast of Gondwanaland. ...
The flora of northwestern Venezuela shows close links with the Pennsylvanian flora of the Northern Hemisphere and Northern Africa; in the Early Permian, it also closely matches the flora reported in the Southwestern and Central United States. The Permian fossils from Venezuela have various species and genera in common with that of this part of the USA, not only flora, but also warm-water marine fauna. The floristic data studied here provide evidence of a close relationship of the plants of the central portion of Pangea with those of Gondwanaland. Based on these similarities in the flora, it is suggested that during the Pennsylvanian-Early Permian, the northeastern part of Gondwanaland, which was one of the regions most affected by the formation of Pangea, had a progressively drier climate, with the vegetation characteristic of such conditions. Moreover, the relationship between the vegetation of this equatorial area and that of the Cathaysian Province during the Early Permian is discussed. Both showed the presence of gigantopterid genera, although there were climatic differences; furthermore, the differences in the species of the group suggest that the two regions may have had quite different vegetation, rather than the shared one traditionally proposed.
... The Late Carboniferous (about Westphalian) distribution of Euramerian £oras (Fig. 9) was compiled after Chaloner and Meyen (1973) and updated (Chaloner and Creber, 1988;Meyen, 1987;Ziegler, 1990;Utting and Piasecki, 1995). Although great caution is needed to correctly implement data on £oral distribution for palaeogeographical purposes (Laveine et al., 1999(Laveine et al., , 2000Ziegler, 1990), the Euramerian realm is sharply con¢ned to the south by the trans-Pangaea seaway (Fig. 9). ...
Old and new, well and poorly known lithofacies data of Moscovian and Artinskian age in the area limited by the Arctic Sea and central Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and the Ural Mountains have been plotted on present-day maps. The facies-mapped and related environments allow the recognition of a series of different palaeogeographic/palaeotectonic units including the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian deep sea to Palaeo-Tethyan ocean, west Siberia–Kazakhstan continent and Uralian–Kazakhstan–Tienshan arc, Uralian foredeep up to the closing arms of the Uralian ocean, Precaspian basin, Russian platform, Donets rift basin, Caucasian–Moesian–Dobrogean–Polish–Oslo basinal belt, syn-tectonic Hercynian foreland basin, intramontane post-Hercynian basins, Iran–Anatolian–Hellenic–Dinaric–Carnic basin branching into the Hungarian seaway, Apennine basin branching into the Cantabrian and South Portuguese basins, Oman–Iraq–Levantine–Sicily deep basin and inferred oceanic sea-way, south Peri-Tethyan platform basins, east Arabian cratonic basin, and north African intracratonic basins. The subsidence/sedimentation trends of these units were correlated and compared through lithostratigraphic logs, bathymetric curves and uncorrected cumulative stratigraphic curves. The sets of original and processed data were used to test two different palaeodynamic models, a Pangaea A model, static from Late Carboniferous to Triassic, and a mobile Pangaea B model with different dextral displacements between Laurussia and Gondwanaland in the same time interval. The best fit for our data requires a strike-slip offset of about 800 km from Moscovian to Artinskian time. This model implies a first quasi-Pangaea or Pangaea B assembly at the Carboniferous/Permian transition, an ephemeral Pangaea B break-up driven by an Early Permian oblique rift across the Mediterranean to Caribbean areas, and a final Pangaea A assembly in the Mid-to-Late Permian. The two palinspastic maps describing the model have been cross-checked by comparison with an independent set of biogeographic features of Late Carboniferous and Early Permian. Overall floral, reptile, and marine benthic organism distribution is consistent with the Early Permian trans-Pangaea seaway inferred from facies and palaeodynamic analyses.
... The Late Carboniferous (about Westphalian) distribution of Euramerian £oras (Fig. 9) was compiled after Chaloner and Meyen (1973) and updated (Chaloner and Creber, 1988;Meyen, 1987;Ziegler, 1990;Utting and Piasecki, 1995). Although great caution is needed to correctly implement data on £oral distribution for palaeogeographical purposes (Laveine et al., 1999(Laveine et al., , 2000Ziegler, 1990), the Euramerian realm is sharply con¢ned to the south by the trans-Pangaea seaway (Fig. 9). ...
Five main rifting cycles, supported by different types of field evidence (including magmatism, sedimentation and tectonics), have been recognized in the circum-Mediterranean area (western Tethys realm) before the opening of the Jurassic Tethys proper. They occurred roughly in the late Cambrian-early Ordovician, early Silurian, late Devonian-Dinantian, early-mid Permian and mid-Triassic times. Each of these rifting cycles began with intracontinental, mainly shallow-marine conditions, evolving usually to basinal environments of quite different bathymetry (the Palaeozoic CCD has been proved to be much less deep than the post Liassic one). Minor suboceanic seaways cut across and fragmented the Gondwana-South European plate following the early Palaeozoic rifting cycles.
... Thus, both paleobotanical and marine paleontological data on fusulinids, ostracods and brachiopods from South China and the Oman area (and the entire Arabian plate) necessitate a reconsideration of the paleogeographical location of the Arabian plate during the Permian. South China was positioned at very low latitudes during Permian times, as is unanimously assumed by various authors, even when their paleogeographical reconstructions for the Permian are con£icting (Chaloner and Creber, 1978;Li et al., 1993;Ross, 1995;Scotese and McKerrow, 1990;Scotese and Langford, 1995;Torcq et al., 1997). However, the new paleobotanical and paleontological data do not support the position of the Arabian plate suggested by Scotese and McKerrow (1990), who favor another paleogeographical reconstruction. ...
The discovery of a Middle Permian fossil flora in the continental Gharif Formation (Huqf area, Sultanate of Oman), combined with an ostracod fauna in the overlying marine Khuff Formation, provides new data that further refine paleogeographical reconstructions of the Paleo-Tethys during the Late Paleozoic. The macro- and microfloral assemblages, originating from a single fossiliferous bed of the Gharif Formation, demonstrate that this paleoflora represents a true mixture of Gondwanan, Cathaysian and Euramerican elements. These data furthermore show that the Huqf area occupied a paleogeographical location favorable for floral exchange at this time. The composition of this flora and its dating are of significance with regard to the relative position of the Arabian Peninsula during the Permian. The presence of forms belonging to the tropical rain forest of the Permian Cathaysian paleokingdom emphasizes the close relationship of the southwestern Paleo-Tethys realm and South China, two regions that were then characterized by the same climatic conditions. For this period, our new data indicate for this period a lower latitude for the Arabian plate and a much more reduced oceanic space between the Cathaysian blocks and the Arabian Peninsula. Therefore, the new data are more in accordance with the recently actualized Pangea B model, than with other, previously proposed Permian Pangea models.
... Special emphasis has been laid on the floral content present in each paleoclimatic stage. Since land plants grow in terrestrial subaerial environments in equilibrium Ma PERIOD G with climate, they constitute an extremely sensitive tool for paleoclimatic inferences (Chaloner and Creber, 1988). Additionally, in contrast to the faunal content of marine facies, extensively treated elsewhere (Amos, 1981;Gonz~lez, 1981a; for a synthesis see Archangelsky, 1987), Late Paleozoic flora of Argentina has not been fully described in a paleoclimatic context so far. ...
Based on sedimentologic and paleontological characteristics present in the sedimentary record of the Calingasta-Uspallata and Paganzo basins, a model of paleoclimatic evolution for the Late Paleozoic of central west Argentina is proposed. Additional evidence is also provided by data from other basins of southern (San Rafael and Tepuel basins) and northern (Tarija basin) west Argentina. Five paleoclimatic stages have been defined:Paleoclimatic stage I (Tournalism-Visean, Early Carboniferous) is characterized by temperature and humid preglacial conditions as evidencedin the El Ratón and Malimán formations (Calingasta-Uspallata basin). Plant remains of Archeosigillaria and Lepidodendropsis zone are present in both units.The paleoclimatic stage II (Namurian-Early Westphalian, Middle Carboniferous) comprises widespread glacial deposits including glaciomarine sequence in the westernmost basins (Calingasta-Uspallata, western Paganzo, San Rafael and Tepuel) and terrestrial tillites and glaciolacustrine fine clastics in some areas of the Paganzo basin. Fossils of the Levipustula fauna are distinctive in the glaciomarine deposits of this stage and in the overlying postglacial fine clastics of the basal portion of stage III (substage IIIa)The paleoclimatic stage III, of Middle Carboniferous (Late Westphalian) age, corresponds to postglacial transgressions that flooded the previously glaciated shelves in the Calingasta-Uspallata and Tepuel basins, terminal glaciolacustrine deposits (substage IIIa), indicate of the demise of glacial conditions, and coal measures of fluvial affinity in the Paganzo basin (substage IIIb). Probably this postglacial stage was characterized by high humidity and moderate temperatures. This stage is paleobiologi defined by a floral assemblage known as NBG (Nothorhacopteris, Botrychiopsis and Ginkgophyllum).The paleoclimatic stage IV (Late Carboniferous (Stephanian)-Early Permian) corresponds to a time-interval characterized by seasonally dry climates and a progressive amelioration in humidity. Clear evidence of these climatic conditions is present in several localities in the Paganzo basin. The first Astherothecae and Glossopteris leaves are found.Finally, paleoclimatic stage V (Middle-Late? Permian) is dominated by red-beds, thick eolian sequences and saline lake facies deposited under arid to semi-arid conditions. Coeval volcanism derived from the west is expressed by interbedded tuffs and agglomerates (Calingasta-Uspallata, Paganzo and San Rafael basins).
Late Paleozoic floras were greatly influenced by diverse geological and paleoclimatic factors. For example, important was the division of Pangea into Laurasia and Gondwana and the subsequent dispersal of continents throughout the Permian, also the climatic effects of major glaciations in Gondwana and their corresponding influence on climates and environments in Laurasia. During the Permian extensive differentiation into regional floras took place (Figs. 1 to 3); floral provinces became well established although their geographical distribution changed with time (Havlena 1970; Chaloner and Meyen 1973; Chaloner and Lacey 1973; Meyen 1973, 1982; Chaloner and Creber 1988). In Laurasia during the late Paleozoic there was progressive differentiation into Angara, Euramerica (North American and Atlantic), Cathaysia, and Gondwana floral provinces.
Three assemblages of carbonate microfossils from the Moscovian and Asselian, characterized respectively by primitive Fusulinella and Beedeina, Hemigordius and Pseudofusulinoides, are described from the Hotan area (southwestern border of the Tarim Basin).
Carboniferous fossil-plant remains were collected from outcrops in the Changting District (Fujian Province). The fossil-yielding horizons belong to the Lindi Formation, more or less correlated with the strata ascribed to the Tseishui and Tzemenchiao Formations of Hunan Province, and considered to be of late Early Carboniferous (Visean/early Namurian) age. Fossil-plant remains were recorded from several horizons in the upper part of the Lindi Formation, the richest horizon representing almost a pure stand of Paripteris gigantea (STERNBERG). The report of Paripteris in this area confirms the large extension of the "Paripteris Flora" on the South China Block during late Early Carboniferous times, and reinforces previous palaeogeographical conclusions.
A thick Carboniferous elastic sequence with numerous thin intercalated marine limestones outcrop in the Hulstai area, in the southwestern part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (North China). The basal part of the sequence, resting unconformably on a massive middle Cambrian limestone, is of early Bashkirian age (Namurian) and belongs to the Jingyuan Formation. It is overlain by a thick sequence representing the Yangfoukou Formation which is for its most part of late to latest Bashkirian age. A marine limestone bed located above the roof of seam no 7 of the overlying Taiyuan Formation is dated of the Asselian.
Carboniferous fossil-plant localities are seldom found in the western part of South China and are mainly of Early Carboniferous age. Scarce fossil-plant remains were collected from three localities located in the northern part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A few plant remains of Tournaisian age were recorded in the vicinity of Guilin, from the Shihtzehsu Formation. The other fossil-plant remains of Visean age were recorded from the Szumen Formation, from two localities in the vicinity of Luocheng. Although the plant assemblages are very poor, the genus Paripteris GOTHAN is definitely present in the area, confirming its large distribution over South China during late Early Carboniferous.
The Carboniferous flora of eastern Peninsular Malaysia, like the first significant Carboniferous flora recently discovered in NE Thailand, exhibits a typical Euramerican aspect. Besides their interest from a systematical and biostratigraphical point of view, these Carboniferous floras can play a key role in the palaeogeographical debate concerning East and Southeast Asia. It is now ascertained that the Indochina Block, to which NE Thailand belonged, was in terrestrial connection at least since Early Carboniferous times with a north Palaeotethyan land mass, most probably the South China Block. From a palaeobotanical viewpoint, a similar conclusion can only be tentative concerning eastern Peninsular Malaysia. The East Malaya Block, to which eastern Peninsular Malaysia belonged, was probably also related with the north Palaeotethyan domain. However, additional data are needed to settle more precisely its palaeogeographical location during Carboniferous times.
Good exposures of Upper Carboniferous fossiliferous strata are accessible in the Delingha District, at the eastern border of the Qaidam Block, in the northern part of the Qinghai Province of Northwest China. Significant collections of fossil-plant remains belonging to various taxa were recorded at three localities from several Upper Carboniferous horizons. The indisputable presence of the genus Paripteris, together with various taxa of Euramerican affinities, in association with taxa commonly reported from the North China Block, reinforce previous conclusions concerning some land connections during Carboniferous times, and the probable migration routes of some Carboniferous pteridosperms.
A thin marine band was discovered in the mostly terrestrial clastic sequence exposed in the Na Duang opencast coal mine, Loei District, Northeastern Thailand. Faunal remains belonging to various groups date the band from the middle-late Visean Cf 5 (Mississippian: Livian =Holkerian=Tulsky). These faunal remains including the principal biomarker, the foraminifer Archaediscus, are briefly presented.
A rich assemblage from the lower Visean is characterized in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (South China) by well preserved Eoparastaffella and Pachysphaerina (=Calcisphaera of the authors). Details of the luminotheca of Eoparastaffella and perforations of the wall of Pachyspherina are obvious. The level is dated by the association of Eoparastaffella and Ammarchaediscus (=Viseidiscus of the authors) as belonging to the second biozone of the Viscan: Cf4β (appearance of the archaediscids). Some systematic remarks on Eoparastaffella and Ammarchaediscus are presented.
Four assemblages of the Serpukhovian, Bashkirian, earliest Moscovian and boundary Moscovian/Kasimovian are described from the Keluke Formation (Delingha area, eastern border of the Qaidam Block, China).
The first significant Carboniferous flora recently discovered in NE Thailand exhibit a typical Euramerican aspect. Besides their interest from a systematical and biostratigraphical point of view, these Carboniferous fossil-plant remains play a key role in the palaeogeographical debate concerning East and Southeast Asia. It is now ascertained that the Indochina Block to which NE Thailand belonged was in terrestrial connection with a north Palaeotethyan land mass, most probably the South China Block, at least from Early Carboniferous times.
Excellent exposures of upper Palaeozoic fossiliferous strata are accessible in the Hulstai area, at the southwestern border of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Fossil-plant remains were collected from several horizons located in the Upper Carboniferous Yangfoukou Formation. The fossil assemblages have a Euramerican aspect, and are mainly of Bashkirian age. Some of the recorded taxa furnish additional palaeobiogeographical argument attesting to land connections between the main North Palaeotethyan land masses during Carboniferous times.
Good exposures of upper Palaeozoic fossiliferous strata are accessible in the Hotan area, at the southwestern border of the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of Northwest China. Significant collections of fossil-plant remains belonging to various taxa were recorded from several horizons located in the Qislaf (Upper Devonian), the Kalawuyi (Upper Carboniferous), and the Tahaqi (uppermost Carboniferous-lowermost Permian) Formations. The indisputable presence of the genus Paripteris GOTHAN, together with various taxa of Euramerican affinities, in association with taxa commonly reported from the North China Block, reinforces previous conclusions concerning some land connections during Carboniferous times, and the probable migration routes of some Carboniferous pteridosperms.
This paper describes the evolution of the former Tethys ocean in terms of successive positions of the involved plates, their boundaries, and the oceanic and continental elements they bore. Most of the past positions for the major continents are obtained from published data on the kinematics of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. As they do not cover the complete time span and area under study, additional solutions for the missing parts are proposed on the basis of paleomagnetic and geologic data. A revised reconstruction of Eastern Gondwana and a reappraisal of the early history of the Indian Ocean is presented, as well as a discussion of the Pangea megashear concept which applies to the relations between Gondawa and Laurussia during latest Palaeozoic to Mid-Triassic times. -from Author
Phytogeographic reconstructions have been published for most Paleozoic series since the Přídolí, but there have been few attempts to synthesize this data into a comprehensive review of the characteristics and causes of the changing phytogeographic patterns for the whole Paleozoic history of the vascular flora. Existing floristic analyses have been compiled in this manuscript and the resulting data are used to reconstruct the evolution of floristic provinces since the Silurian.The earliest plant fossil records indicate that provinciality was characteristic of terrestrial vascular plant distributions right from the beginning of terrestrial colonization by vascular plants. This interpretation differs markedly from the views of many workers who still maintain that pre-Upper Carboniferous floras were uniform and cosmopolitan in distribution.Three of the four major phytogeographic units, i.e. Angara, Euramerica, and Gondwana, can be recognized in the earliest fossil floras. The fourth unit, Cathaysia, differentiated from Euramerica during the late Upper Carboniferous. Phytogeographic differentiation occurs in direct response to climatic gradients and physiographic barriers. As these gradients and barriers change, provincial boundaries expand and contract, fragment, reassemble and reassort. Phytogeographic units are dynamic through time.
The climatic influences on vegetation in the present world can serve as an excellent model for the Permian, there being approximately the same level of floral differentiation and the same relatively cold polar regions. Accordingly, a system of present day climatically defined biomes, developed by Walter, is adapted herein for palaeophytogeographic purposes. There are ten biomes altogether which range from the tropical 'everwet' (biome 1) to the polar 'glacial' (biome 10).
Biome 1 is represented by the tropical rainforests of the Cathaysian province sensu stricto which was populated by the arborescent lycopods and sphenophytes, and the Gigantopterids which are interpreted as lianas (vines). This is flanked by the lower diversity 'summerwet' biome 2, the Atlantic Province, a zone which today is characterized by savanna vegetation, and in the Permian was represented by the pteridosperm Callipteris and the primitive conifers. Biome 3 was effectively 'abiotic' and is expressed geologically by evaporite belts.
The 'winterwet' or Mediterranean climate of today (biome 4) was not well developed in the Permian, or perhaps just not well preserved, but I attribute some low diversity floras of Kazakhstan to this biome. Biome 5, the 'warm temperate' biome is well developed in both hemispheres, and, like biome 1, is characterized by high diversity floras and abundant swamp deposits. Not surprisingly, the biome 5 floras have been mistaken for biome 1 with which they are transitional in the modern world and with which they share similar climatic conditions. In the Permian Angaran Realm, the Pechora Province represents this biome, while the Austroafroamerican Province is the Gondwanan equivalent. Often, biome 5 floras have been simply termed 'mixed'. Proceeding poleward across the 'hard frost line', the cool temperate floras of biome 6 were populated by diverse herbaceous sphenophytes and deciduous trees (the cordaitids of Angara and the similarly diverse glossopterids of Gondwana). Areas in the temperate zone that were remote from moisture sources are assigned to biome 7 and are only known in the southern hemisphere by some aeolian deposits in Argentina. The 'cold temperate' biome 8 is a low diversity equivalent of biome 6, and has been given the name Gangamopteris Flora in the southern hemisphere. The 'tundra' environment, biome 9, and the truly glacial deposits, biome 10, are known only from the southern hemisphere.
The generally sedentary character of terrestrial plants gives them a special dependence on their adaptation to the climate under which they live. As a consequence, plants normally show structural adaptations which are characteristic of their habitat, and fossil plants constitute particularly sensitive palaeoenvironmental indicators. In Quaternary pollen analysis the assumption is generally made that the species recognised as pollen had the same climatic constraints as their present-day representatives. As we go back through Tertiary time, and extant species become progressively rarer, we seek the nearest living relatives of the plant fossils as a basis for palaeoclimatic interpretation. This approach relies on the accuracy of the taxonomic assignment of the fossil material. Various ‘non-taxonomic’ features of Tertiary fossils have also been used in attempts to read a ‘palaeoclimatic signal’, independent of the correctness of the taxonomic assignment. These include most notably leaf physiognomy, and growth responses to seasonality such as growth rings in fossil wood. When we look to Palaeozoic plants, even leaf physiognomic features are of limited value, but fossil plants of this age can still give us significant information about their palaeoenvironment. The presence of charcoal (fusain) produced by wildfire puts a constraint on the level of oxygen in the palaeoatmosphere. Stomatal density and index may be used to give a proxy measure of palaeo-CO2 levels. The realisation of the link between the carbon-dioxide greenhouse phenomenon and climate makes the use of stomatal data from fossil plants of particular relevance to palaeoclimatic interpretation. Our results from a study of stomatal index in plants from the devonian to Permian interval are consistent with evidence from physical sources of major changes in global CO2 levels through that period.
Venezuela, due to having been located near the equator (0-10ºS) during the Late Pensylvanian, did not have the influence of the permo.carboniferam glaziation that affected to other more southern portions of the Gondwana paleocontinent. For this reason and due to having been one of the most close areas of the Gondwana to Laurasia’s paleocontinent, it is expected that the vegetation that developed during the interval between Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian was closely related to the paleofloras belonging to Laurasia known till now in the Euroamerican’s Provínce. After the study of the specimenes gathered in the Carache’s Formation Outcrop, located at kilometer 16 of the Carache-Agua de Obispo way, could be identified the following species: Sphenophyllum sp., Annularia cf. A. stellata (Schlotheim) Wood, Lobatopteris vestita (Lesquereux) Wagner, Neuropteris ovata Hoffmann y N. scheuchzeri Hoffmann; in addition to Protoblechnum sp., formerly gathered in the Quebrada Mucuchaché outcrop (Palmarito’s Formation of the Early Permian). All of them well known in other formations of the same periods in Europe and North America.
The Taiyuan (C3 + Po), the Shansi (F1/1+F1/2) and the Shihhotse (P1/2) including the Shihchienfeng (P2/2) series are roughly correlated to the Talchir (including the Boulder Bed), the Barakar (including the Karharbari and possibly the Barren Measure), and the Raniganj series in India. respectively. The respective floras of each series of Cathaysia and India are compared with each other epoch by epoch. It is concluded that the Cathaysian flora had almost nothing to do with the Glossopteris flora in India during the age ranging from the Taiyuan to the Shansi epoch, while during the mid-Permian crustal movements some elements of the Glossopteris flora as Schizoneura, Rhipidopsis, Glossopteris, and possibly Palaeovittaria came into contact and mixed with the Upper Permian Cathaysian flora.
A fossil flora recently discovered in the central part of Saudi Arabia is reported here. This represents the first assemblage of plants of Permo-Carboniferous age in the Arabian peninsula. The assemblage is of interest in showing affinity with contemporaneous northern Euramerian floras rather than those of Cathaysia or Gondwanaland to the east and south of Arabia.
Several possible configurations of the Pangaea supercontinent have been suggested for the interval from late Carboniferous to early Triassic. Here we re-examine the palaeomagnetic basis for these models, emphasizing the trends of the paths of apparent polar wander for the individual components of the supercontinent rather than simply averaging poles of presumed similar age. Two of the alternatives, Pangaea B and C, may result from averaging poles of dissimilar age along common polar wander paths, giving rise to spurious tectonic displacements. The most likely model appears to be the formation, in late Devonian time, of a modified Pangaea (A2) followed by evolution to the traditional configuration (A) during the Triassic.
This paper attempts to give a brief review of research on the Cathaysia flora during the last 20 years in China and other countries. The paper also briefly discusses the origin, development, migration and extinction of this flora from the Late Carboniferous to the close of the Permian.
There have been at least ten English-language textbooks of palaeobotany since D. H. Scott published the first edition of Studies inFossilBotany in 1900. Most have been written by scientists who were primarily botanists by training, and were aimed largely at a readership familiar with living plants. They tended to follow a general pattern of an introductory chapter on preservation of plants as fossils, followed by a systematic treatment, group by group. Only Seward in his Plant Life Through the Ages departed from this pattern in presenting a chronological sequence. In the present book, Meyen breaks with?is tradition. Although having a basically biological approach, he reaches out into all aspects of the history of plant life and the wider implication of its study. Only half of the present work deals sequentially with fossil plant groups, treated systematically. The remainder then explores those topics which most other textbooks have incidentally??e generally either ignored or have only mentioned rather problems of naming and classifying fragmentary plant fossils, their ecology; biogeography and palaeoclimatic significance and the contribution that?ey have made to the understanding of living plant morphology, and of the process of evolution.
Phytogeographic analysis of three Early Carboniferous intervals (Tournaisian-early Visean, Visean, and late Visean-early Namurian A) indicates a high level of phytogeographic differentiation in the beginning of the Early Carboniferous that decreases toward the end of this period. Climatic amelioration (warmer or wetter conditions) in the north middle and high latitudes, caused by the collision of Laurussia and Gondwana at the end of the Early Carboniferous, may be responsible for this decrease in phytogeographic provinciality. Toward the end of the Early Carboniferous, a large number of equatorial genera expand their ranges northward, and the average generic diversity of assemblages in the north high latitudes (Siberia) also rises. Both support the hypothesis of climatic amelioration. Global plant diversity assessed at the generic level remained constant during the Early Carboniferous. The increase in Siberian diversity was offset by a decrease in equatorial diversity, perhaps due to the loss of pronounced latitudinal climatic gradients between north-middle and equatorial latitudes. from Author
L'étude de bois silicifiés et d'empreintes collectés dans un gisement permien du centre de l'Arabie Saoudite conduit à reconnaître la présence des genres et espèces suivants: Dadoxylon sp. 1, Dadoxylon sp. 2, Cordaites sp., Annularia mucronata Schenk, Lobatannularia cf. heianensis Kodaira, Pecopteris phegopteroides O. Feismantel, Pecopteris cf. wongii Halle, Neuropteridium schyfsmae n. sp., Fascipteris hallei (Kawasaki) Lee & alii, Cladophlebis aff. roylei Arber, Taeniopteris, sp., (?) Marattiopsis sp. et Zamiopteris sp. Il s'agit d'une flore très affine de la flore d'âge Permien supérieur d'Hazro (Turquie) décrite en 1962 par R.H. Wagner, l'une et l'autre ont la particularité de comporter des éléments de type cathaysien, dont la présence incite à envisager l'éventualité d'une relation entre l'Euramérie et la Cathaysie au Permien et l'existence d'une zone d'extension géographique d'éléments cathaysiens dont l'orientation était sensiblement celle l'axe de la Méditerranée actuelle, probablement au Sud et le long de la Téthys (?) (la position de la Cathaysie au Permien demeure imprécise).
For the Permian to Jurassic time interval Tethyan marine invertebrate faunas, which are generally accepted as having lived at low latitude, can be distinguished from less diverse higher latitude faunas. Displacement of these low-latitude faunas to positions of high latitude around the Pacific margins therefore provides key evidence for the movement of so-called suspect or displaced terranes. The fullest story so far has been worked out for the western margin of N America, as far north as southern Alaska, but there is also convincing evidence for the substantial northward movement of continental segments along the NE Asian margin. As regards the Southern Hemisphere the Torlesse Terrane of New Zealand appears to have moved a considerable distance southwards, but there is no fauna1 evidence of comparable far-travelled suspect terranes along the Andean margin of South America. Not only Tethyan and Boreal but E and W Pacific elements are detectable in the faunas, and the distribution of these argues for a Panthalassia studded with islands of various sizes fringing the adjacent continents, rather than for the disintegration of a single continent—Pacifica.
Evolution of the angiosperm leaf is traced through venation patterns by
comparing those of living plants from the countries which formed
Gondwanaland with the fossil record.
Silicified layers of plant material from the Late Permian Blackwater Group of the Bowen Basin, Queensland, contain seed-bearing organs associated with Glossopteris leaves; comparison of these organs with attached fertile glossopterid structures previously described from compressions indicates the petrified organs are undoubtedly of Glossopteris. The fructification consists of an infolded megasporophyll with loosely overlapping lateral margins forming an envelope bearing sessile gymnospermous seeds on the inner surface. The seeds contain a megagametophyte with one archegonium. Previous interpretations of fertile glossopterid structures as cupular valves, fertiligers, and cones with a subtending bract, e.g. Dictyopteridium and Scutum, are now reinterpreted as having a similar arrangement of megasporophyll envelope (= subtending bract of ‘cone’) enclosing the seeds.Pollen-bearing organs in the deposit are of the Arberiella type and contain bisaccate pollen. Similar pollen grains are found in the micropyles and pollen chambers of the seeds. Petrified fern leptosporangia are also common in the silicified material, but are not related to Glossopteris.Glossopteris, which was probably a deciduous aborescent gymnosperm, is considered to be a distinct type of pteridosperm.
A consensus has emerged that during the Palaeozoic several landmasses progressively collided to form the supercontinent Pangaea, which subsequently split up in the Mesozoic and Tertiary to produce the present array of continents. But whereas there is a high measure of agreement about the general shape of the early Jurassic Pangaea, shortly before the initial Atlantic opening, three very different reconstructions of the end-Palaeozoic supercontinent have recently been proposed. These differences, which involve the relative positions of the northern and southern sectors of Pangaea, known respectively as Laurasia and Gondwana, relate to the interpretation of palaeomagnetic data. The three constructions are here tested with reference to geological and palaeobiogeographic data and arguments.
Substantial additions of large continental blocks to the Smith et al.
1 model of eastern Gondwanaland are proposed here largely on the basis of the distribution of key land floras, tropical and subtropical marine faunas, lithofacies patterns and the identification of a Triassic magmatic arc that characterized all the eastern margin of Gondwanaland. The continental fragments that must have been rifted from northern Australia–New Guinea in the Jurassic are identified as south Tibet–Burma–Thailand–Malaya and Sumatra. The original site of deposition of the subtropical Permian limestones and tropical late Triassic limestones, overthrust onto the northern margin of Australia by the late Cenozoic collision2, is located in this greater Gondwanaland. Palaeomagnetic data, except those from Malaya3, support this reconstruction.
Polar wander paths for the North and South China blocks suggest that (1) both were parts of Gondwana in the Palaeozoic, (2) the North China block accreted to Siberia in the late Permian and (3) the South China block accreted to the North China block in the middle Triassic to the early Jurassic. Comparison of the polar wander path for the South China block with that for northern Eurasia suggests that relative motion of over 4,000 km has occurred between them.
New evidence concerning the palaeovegetation of the upper Permian and lower Triassic Shischienfeng Group in North China reveals two distinctive floras: a Zechstein-type vegetation in the lower part and a Buntsandstein-type flora in the middle and upper parts. The traditional concept that North China is a component of the Cathaysian floral province does not match with the newly confirmed palaeophytostratigraphical sequence from the early Permian Autunian-Saxonian flora passing via the Zechstein and the Buntsandstein vegetations to the late Triassic Keuper flora in North China corresponding to the sequence in Western Europe. The sequence reveals that the former northern Cathaysian Province is thus to be considerably revised, with North China now being assigned to the Euramerican Province rather than to the Cathaysian Province during late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic times. The Eurasian Arid Province is suggested to comprise a specific scene of the Euramerican Province from the late Permian to the early Triassic. The so-called “Cathaysian floras” in North China represent a mixed association of Euramerican elements with some Cathaysian components, reflecting an origin when the South China Plate drifted north-ward and collided temporarily and repeatedly with the North China Plate during the late Palaeozoci time. The evolution of South China and North China is briefly summarized in the light of the concept of continental drift.
MELVILLE1 advanced the hypothesis that leaf venation patterns of flowering plants provide a body of evidence-suggesting the origin of angiosperms from the Permian Glossopteris and its allies, which flourished on the old continent of Gondwanaland. He shows that Glossopteris-like venation patterns are encountered in several living angiosperms, and emphasizes that most significant examples are found in regions which once constituted the Gondwanaland continent. His argument hinges on the extent to which these venation patterns can be said to resemble closely Glossopteris rather than other gymnosperm leaf types. This proposition can seriously be called in question.
A identify floras as subjectively assigncd to the Gondwana, Cathaysia, Euramerica, and Angara provinces General sources of data are from Chaloner and Meyen); individual rccords were also derived from the following sources, for the localities or regions shown: 1-5: Plumstead
- Fascipteris
- C G Lepidodendron
Fascipteris, and Lepidodendron s. s. The letters G, C, E, and A identify floras as subjectively assigncd to the Gondwana, Cathaysia, Euramerica, and Angara provinces. General sources of data are from Chaloner and Meyen (1973), Chaloner and Lacey (1973), Vachrameev et al. (1978); individual rccords were also derived from the following sources, for the localities or regions shown: 1-5: Plumstead (1973), 6: Jongmans (1940), Hopping and Wagner (1962), 7: Kon'no (1966), 8: Ctyroky (1973), 9: Archangelsky and Wagner (1983), 10: EI-Khayal and Wagner (1985), 11,12: Asama (1984);
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HALLE, T. G. (1937). The relation between the Late Palaeozoic floras of eastern and northern Asia. C. R. 2e Congrds l'avancement dtud. stratigr. Car-bonifOre, Heerlen 1935, Maastricht 1,237-45.
Beitr~ige zur Kenntnis der Karbonflora yon Niederl
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JONGMANS, W. J. (1940). Beitr~ige zur Kenntnis der Karbonflora yon Niederl/indisch Neu-Guinea.
Manual of elementary geology
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LVELL, C. (1855). Manual of elementary geology. (5th edn). J. Murray, London.
New data on relationship between Angara and Gondwana Late Palaeozoic floras Relation of Angara and Gond-wana floras: a century of controversies
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MEVEN, S. V. (1969). New data on relationship between Angara and Gondwana Late Palaeozoic floras. In Gondwana Stratigraphy, lUGS Symposium, Buenos Aires, 1967. pp. 141-57, Unesco, Paris. MEYEN, S. V. (1979). Relation of Angara and Gond-wana floras: a century of controversies. Fourth International Gondwana Symposium, Calcutta, India, 1977, pp. 45-50.
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Papers presented at the 9th International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology (1979), Carboniferous and Permian floral provinces in East Asia
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Plant determinations Geological results of the exploration for oil in Netherlands New Guinea 1962 53 Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Nederlands geologisch mijnbouwkundig genootschap, Geologische serie, deel XX
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The flora of the Upper Carboniferous of Djambi (Sumatra, Netherl., India) and its possible bearing on the palaeogeography of the Carboniferous
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Importance paléobiogéographique de la découverte d’une flore continentale mixte dans le Permien inférieur du Sud-Ouest de la Péninsule ibérique
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Paläozoische und mesozoische Floren Eurasiens und die Phytogeographie dieser Zeit
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Gigantopteris flora in China and Southeast Asia Geology and palaeontology of Southeast Asia
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Carboniferous and Permian floras of the northern continents Atlas of palaeobiogeography
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