Finding Terrestrial Devonian Plants In A Marine Deposit

[Jeffrey P]

Last summer I posted a description of an excellent, but hot day collecting from the Dave Elliot Bed, at a Middle Devonian site just outside Kingston, NY. The site, as I described, is a thin layer only inches thick, rich in tiny bivalves and cephalopods (straight-shelled nautiloids and the goniatite, Tornoceras). Eumetabolotoechia brachiopods and fossils of terrestrial plants are also present as are occasional rare fossils like conularids. It is a deepwater site and the limited fauna are specially adapted to those conditions. The plants probably originated from forests that lined a river delta somewhere to the east, remains of which have long ago disappeared after millions of years of erosion. The plants which include branches of Psilophyton and Lycopod bark with leaf scars are what remains of this very ancient vanished forest.

Edited May 11, 2014 by Jeffrey P

[Pumpkinhead]

Cool stuff.

[Fossildude19]

Jeff,

Sorry I missed this!

Very cool any time you can find devonian plants!

Congratulations on some interesting plant finds.

Regards,

[Jeffrey P]

Some close up shots of the plant fossils;

[Jeffrey P]

More closeups:

[Jeffrey P]

William Stein, paleobotanist at SUNY Binghamton, described the fossils as 1.) a fragment of a lycopsid, 2 and 4 perhaps belonging to Aneurophytales though uncertain, and 3.) also perhaps a aneurophytalean rhizome although this remains highly speculative. I should also credit Alex Batholomew, paleontology professor at SUNY New Paltz for the photographs.

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for the update, Jeff.

Very cool that you have those contacts.

Now to go look up "Aneurophytales ".

Regards,