Bryophytes Might Explain Late Ordovician Ice Age

[Oxytropidoceras]

Weathering of rocks by mosses may explain climate effects

during the Late Ordovician, Stockholm University, July 7, 2016

http://www.aces.su.se/weathering-of-rocks-by-mosses-may-explain-climate-change-during-the-late-ordovician/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160707101029.htm

 

The paper is:

 

Porada, P., T. M. Lenton, A. Pohl, B. Weber, L. Mander, Y.

Donnadieu, C. Beer, U. Pöschl, A. Kleidon. High potential for

weathering and climate effects of non-vascular vegetation

in the Late Ordovician. Nature Communications, 2016; 7:

12113 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12113

http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12113

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[doushantuo]

Porada l 2016 Ordovicianpedolsurface weatheringbotany non-vascular plants Nat Comms.pdf

Link didn't work for me,so i posted this in case others have the same problem

[tmaier]

While reading this, it occured to me that seeing the surface of the earth dominated by ONLY lichens and bryophytes is something that I can't picture, and also have never seen a diorama of something like that. We have all seen pictures of the Pennslyvanian period, dominated by fern trees. That seems rather alien, but imagine a scene of low level carpets of lichens and bryophytes. and NOTHING ELSE! Shocking, huh? The vascular plants have pushed these nonvascular organisms off into corner. Even looking at photos of a tundra... you are mostly seeing vascular plants there.

Searching for a diorama of the dry land in Ordovician times, I see none... http://www.google.com/search?q=diorama+dry+land+ordovician+period&btnG=Search&hl=en&gbv=1&tbm=isch

[DPS Ammonite]

I see one from Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peter6381/ordovicium/

[Ridgehiker]

Mosses? I thought the earliest fossil bryophytes are from the Carboniferous.

 

The Ordovician is long before mosses.  There may have been terrestrial lichens (A symbiotic relation of fungi and cynobacteria  or early algae).

[Oxytropidoceras]

Fossils of earliest land plants discovered in Argentina

BY Matt Walker, Earth News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9079000/9079963.stm

 

“The researchers' best estimate is that the colonisation

of land could have occurred during the early Ordovician

period (488 to 472 million years ago) or even during

the late Cambrian period (499 to 488 million years ago).”

 

The paper is:

 

Rubinstein, C. V., P. Gerrienne, G. S. de la Puente, R. A. Astini,

And P. Steemans, 210, Early Middle Ordovician evidence

for land plants in Argentina (eastern Gondwana) New

Phytologist. First published: 20 August 2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03433.x

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03433.x/full

 

Also there is:

 

Origin and evolution of the early land plants in Argentina

and South America Through the Palynbological Record

http://ianigla.academia.edu/ClaudiaRubinstein

https://orbi.ulg.ac.be/bitstream/2268/168745/1/Rubinstein et al 2014.pdf

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.