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Lochkovian plants from the Xitun Formation of Yunnan, China, and their palaeophytogeographical significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2011

JINZHUANG XUE
JINZHUANG XUE*
Affiliation:
The Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China
*
*E-mail: pkuxue@pku.edu.cn
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Abstract

A megafossil plant assemblage containing three zosterophyll plants (Gen. nov. A, aff. Huia sp. and a unnamed spike) is described from the Lower Devonian Xitun Formation (Lochkovian) of Qujing, Yunnan Province, China, providing new data on the diversity of plant types during the Lochkovian, a time poorly represented by fossil vascular plants. Gen. nov. A has a character combination of naked axes, a diagnostic branching pattern (i.e. K-type branching as well as small lateral branches scattered along the axes) and lateral stalked sporangia. Aff. Huia sp. has ovate and stalked sporangia which are arranged in loose spirals and are reflexed adaxially. Combining the plants previously reported from the Xitun Formation (i.e. Xitunia spinitheca, Zosterophyllum shengfengense and Z. minorstachyum), the Xitun flora is dominated by zosterophylls and exhibits varied vegetative and fertile morphologies. Unlike the coeval plant assemblages in many localities of Laurussia and western Gondwana, which are mainly composed of plants with isotomous branching and terminal sporangia, the Lochkovian flora of South China is dominated by zosterophylls, documenting the existence of a distinct Northwest Gondwanan phytogeographic unit in the Lochkovian and a strong effect of phytogeographical isolation.

Keywords

Lochkovianphytogeographyzosterophyllplant diversitySouth China
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 149 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 333 - 344
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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