Ecological changes in Pennsylvanian (Asturian and early Cantabrian) coal floras inferred from lycophyte microspore abundances

Abstract

The distribution and relative amounts of six genera of lycophyte microspores, Lycospora, Densosporites, Crassispora, Cirratriradites, Endosporites and Cadiospora, are compared in the Pennsylvanian coals from the Dobrudzha and Forest of Dean coalfields, clastic sediments from the Glace Bay borehole in the Cape Breton Coalfield, and the southern crop of the South Wales coalfield. Inverse relationships are shown between Lycospora and Densosporites and between Lycospora and Crassispora in samples from all of the coalfields. The changes in microspore assemblages suggest there were at least five different communities of lycophyte plants growing in the Pennsylvanian swamps. Changes in microspore assemblages at the Asturian/Cantabrian boundary mirror the previously described macrofloral changes at this time.

Palaeobotanical experiences of plant diversity in deep time. 1: How well can we identify past plant diversity in the fossil record?

“…Smith 1962Smith , 1968Habib and Groth 1967;Jasper et al 2010;Johnston et al 2017;Eble et al 2019) and to 24. look at plant diversity at the rank of genus and higher (e.g. Dimitrova and Cleal 2007;Libertín et al 2009b;Thomas and Dimitrova 2017), but direct translation of the resulting palynological spectra into plant species diversity is difficult.…”

Why Lycospora dominated many Pennsylvanian spore assemblages

“…The knowledge of the affinities of these fructifications makes it possible to suggest palaeoecological interpretations from the microspore assemblages (Thomas and Dimitrova 2017).…”