Aberlemnia caledonica gen. et comb. nov., a new name for Cooksonia caledonica Edwards 1970

Gonez, Paul; Gerrienne, Philippe

doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2010.09.005

Cited by 32 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…None of the material was fertile. By contrast, in the slightly younger early Ludlow to early Pridoli Lipeon Formation in southern Bolivia near Tarija, well‐preserved rhyniophytes, including Cooksonia cf caledonica ( C. caledonica is now known as Aberlemnia Gonez and Gerrienne ), diverse isolated rhyniophytoid sporangia as well as abundant smooth axes some with branching typical of Hostinella , were preserved in a shallow‐water marine setting (Edwards et al . ).…”

Section: Fossil Evidence For Pre‐devonian Phytoterrestrialization (Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

Could land‐based early photosynthesizing ecosystems have bioengineered the planet in mid‐Palaeozoic times?

2015

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The Ordovician and Silurian periods were times of major geological activity as regards palaeogeography, volcanism and climate change, the last of these evidenced by a series of cooling episodes and glaciations that climaxed in the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician). The presence of cryptospores in the Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) marked the advent of higher plants on land. A critical survey of direct (mega-and microfossils) and some indirect evidence in succeeding rocks indicates the presence of algae, Bacteria, Cyanobacteria, Fungi, probable lichens, cryptophytes and basal tracheophytes. Similar associations of photosynthesizers and decomposers occur today in cryptogamic covers (CCs), for example biological crusts, except that bryophytes replace cryptophytes (basal embryophytes) and tracheophytes are absent. Thus, extant CCs, which make significant contributions today to global carbon and nitrogen fixation and prevention of erosion, provide an excellent analogue for the impacts of early land vegetation on both lithosphere and atmosphere. As a prerequisite to assessing impacts in Ordovician-Silurian times, with particular consideration of parameters used by climate modellers, the effects of a number of abiotic factors on the growth and survival of extant cryptogamic ground covers and their environmental impacts are reviewed. Factors include photosynthetically active radiation, ultraviolet radiation, temperature, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, surface roughness and albedo. A survey of the nature and extent of weathering facilitated by such vegetation concludes that it was limited based on depth of weathering when compared with that from rooted tracheophytes today, with minor effects on carbon dioxide drawdown. As global net productivity from Ordovician-Silurian CCs was very probably lower than today, and while the small fraction of intractable material in their organic carbon would have resulted in a more rapid turnover of terrestrial biomass, we conclude that there was decreased possibility of long-term organic carbon burial. Hence, there would have been very limited increase in atmospheric oxygen and decrease in carbon dioxide resulting from carbon burial.

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Section: Fossil Evidence For Pre‐devonian Phytoterrestrialization (Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

Could land‐based early photosynthesizing ecosystems have bioengineered the planet in mid‐Palaeozoic times?

2015

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“…Basal lycophytes are represented by zosterophylls [ 33 ]. Silurian zosterophylls include Zosterophyllum , Bathurstia , Distichophytum , Macivera , and Aberlemnia with bivalved sporangia and dehiscence along the distal sporangial margin, which has led to the placement of these plants [ 38 , 41 ] in the lycophyte stem group. The first unambiguous lycophyte is Baragwanathia , occurring in the late Silurian [ 42 , 43 , 44 ], which already had well-developed microphylls.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of Silurian Plants as Response to Climate Changes

Pšenička¹,

Bek

Frýda

et al. 2021

Life

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The most ancient macroscopic plants fossils are Early Silurian cooksonioid sporophytes from the volcanic islands of the peri-Gondwanan palaeoregion (the Barrandian area, Prague Basin, Czech Republic). However, available palynological, phylogenetic and geological evidence indicates that the history of plant terrestrialization is much longer and it is recently accepted that land floras, producing different types of spores, already were established in the Ordovician Period. Here we attempt to correlate Silurian floral development with environmental dynamics based on our data from the Prague Basin, but also to compile known data on a global scale. Spore-assemblage analysis clearly indicates a significant and almost exponential expansion of trilete-spore producing plants starting during the Wenlock Epoch, while cryptospore-producers, which dominated until the Telychian Age, were evolutionarily stagnate. Interestingly cryptospore vs. trilete-spore producers seem to react differentially to Silurian glaciations—trilete-spore producing plants react more sensitively to glacial cooling, showing a reduction in species numbers. Both our own and compiled data indicate highly terrestrialized, advanced Silurian land-plant assemblage/flora types with obviously great ability to resist different dry-land stress conditions. As previously suggested some authors, they seem to evolve on different palaeo continents into quite disjunct specific plant assemblages, certainly reflecting the different geological, geographical and climatic conditions to which they were subject.

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“…Another specimen shows a trichotomous axis division (3.2 mm long × 0.3 mm wide; Fig. c), a feature known to occur in some late Silurian–early Devonian plants (Gonez & Gerrienne, ,b). The studied samples also yielded several probably fertile axes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%