The earliest forests in the Devonian were reported from only four localities worldwide. The tree lycopsids, sometimes as the primary elements of Devonian forests, had evolved several types of rooting systems. In recent years, we found and excavated a Late Devonian (Famennian, 374-359 Ma) lycopsid forest from Zhejiang Province, China. The fossil forest occurs at seven locations of Lincheng Town of Changxing County and mainly consists of small tree lycopsid ( gen. et sp. nov.) stems usually connected to lobed cormose rhizomorphs. The four short lobes of each rhizomorph often branch once and bear roots arranged radially. Allometry is observed between the trunk diameter of and the length of its rhizomorphic lobes, indicating that the trunk develops later than the rhizomorph in tree lycopsid plants. The Devonian witnessed the transformation from clastic nonlycopsid dominated forests to Carboniferous swampy forests dominated by giant lycopsid trees. These trees form a multigenerational community, as shown by the preserved stems at various levels within the same area due to frequent sedimentation events.
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forest with lycopsid trees bearing lobed rhizomorphs from the Upper Devonian of Lincheng, China.
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School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
The earliest forests in the Devonian were reported from only four localities worldwide. The tree lycopsids, sometimes as the primary elements of Devonian forests, had evolved several types of rooting systems. In recent years, we found and excavated a Late Devonian (Famennian, 374-359 Ma) lycopsid forest from Zhejiang Province, China.
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Life (Basel)
May 2024
School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
Forests appeared during the Middle to Late Devonian, but Devonian forests and their compositions are still rarely known. Xinhang forest was reported as the largest Devonian forest, with lycopsid trees of Wang et al. A fern-like plant Yang and Wang with shoots and anatomy, was previously described from this forest, but its habit and ecology remain unclear.
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Article Synopsis
- Tree lycopsids were crucial to the Late Devonian forest ecosystem and influenced Earth's climate, but their reproductive structures show limited morphological variation, making it hard to understand their ecology.
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Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Background: Guangdedendron micrum is the Late Devonian tree lycopsid that made up Xinhang fossil forest in Anhui, China, showing the earliest stigmarian rooting system. Based on new specimens of this lycopsid, the roots bearing rootlets, terminal parts of stems, vegetative leaves and monosporangiate strobili containing megaspores are researched in detail.
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PLoS One
November 2021
Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University-State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, United States of America.
The dichotomy of the earliest ecosystems into deltaic and floodplain forests was a long-standing view in paleobotany. The morphological traits such as nonbranching rootlets, bifurcating rhizomes, and bulbous bases of the primitive trees such as Eospermatopteris and lycopsids were considered adaptations to the lowland deltaic environments. In contrast, the traits of Archaeopteris trees such as wood, hierarchical branching networks of roots, and true leaves are an adaptation to the upland floodplain environments.
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