The Most Extensive Devonian Fossil Forest with Small Lycopsid Trees Bearing the Earliest Stigmarian Roots

Deming Wang; Min Qin; Le Liu; Lu Liu; Yi Zhou; Yingying Zhang; Pu Huang; Jinzhuang Xue; Shihui Zhang; Meicen Meng

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.053

The Most Extensive Devonian Fossil Forest with Small Lycopsid Trees Bearing the Earliest Stigmarian Roots

Curr Biol. 2019 Aug 19;29(16):2604-2615.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.053. Epub 2019 Aug 8.

Authors

Deming Wang¹, Min Qin², Le Liu³, Lu Liu⁴, Yi Zhou⁴, Yingying Zhang⁴, Pu Huang⁵, Jinzhuang Xue⁴, Shihui Zhang⁴, Meicen Meng⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Department of Geology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: dmwang@pku.edu.cn.
² Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi 276000, China.
³ School of Geoscience and Surveying Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: liule_321@126.com.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Department of Geology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁵ Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
⁶ Science Press, China Science Publishing and Media Ltd., Beijing 100717, China.

PMID: 31402300
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.053

Abstract

Since the Late Paleozoic, forests have become distributed worldwide and significantly changed the Earth's climate and landscapes, but the record of forests is rare in the Devonian (419-359 Ma in age) when they first appeared. From the Upper Devonian (Famennian with the age of 372-359 Ma) of Xinhang, Anhui, China, we report a very large in situ forest, which includes locally dense stands of lycopsid plants. The Xinhang forest is monospecific with a small tree lycopsid Guangdedendron gen. nov., probably dioecious with monocarpic reproduction. The plant shows the earliest stigmarian rooting system typical of giant tree lycopsids dominating Carboniferous forests. It colonizes coastal clastic wetlands that were influenced by floods. This significantly increases the paleogeographical coverage of in situ Devonian forests, and contributes to our understanding of atmospheric CO₂ decline and coastal consolidation.

Keywords: CO(2); Devonian; Guangdedendron; Wutong Formation; fossil forest; lycopsid; root; stigmarian rhizomorph; tree; wetland.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Forests*
Fossils* / anatomy & histology
Plant Roots / anatomy & histology*
Tracheophyta* / anatomy & histology
Trees* / anatomy & histology