FLOOR FLORA OF COAL 4AND 5FROM THE LOWER PERMIAN SHANXI FORMATION IN WUDA COALFIELD,INNER MONGOLIA
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Abstract:
Based on the collections from the floors of coal 4 and 5 in the lower Permian Shanxi Formation, Wuda Coalfield, Inner Mongolia, 26 species within 18 genera of fossil plants have been identified. Among them, the Cathaysian elements are dominant. According to the taphonomic and palaeoecological analysis, the floor flora of coal 5 was dominated by Lepidodendron posthumii Jongm. and Goth. and Cathaysiodendron cf. incertum(Sze and Lee) Lee. This flora grew in clastic swamp in the deltaic plain. The floor flora of coal 4 was a mixed one with both clastic and peat-forming swamp vegetation. Stigmaria ficoides(Sternb.) Brongn. is autochthonous, indicating the peat-forming vegetation of coal 4 was composed of arborescent lycopsids. The Tingia carbonica(Schenk) Halle and Pecopteris arborescens(Schloth.) Sternb. assemblage represents the clastic swamp vegetation growing in the deltaic plain. Based on our synthesized analysis, coal floor floras in the Wuda Coalfield can be divided into three types: the flora that initiated formation of the peat, the clastic swamp flora which has no relationship with the overlying coal, and a flora mixed by the former two types. Characterization of these coal floor floras must take into consideration of the sedimentological interpretation of the associated lithologies, the stratigraphic sequences, and the taphonomic processes. Our current case study suggests that the wetland floras in the Wuda Coalfield were compositionally persistent during the early Permian. Arborescent lycopsids were commonly the dominant elements of the peat-forming flora. Peat-forming and clastic swamp assemblages were of taxonomic similarity with species-level differences.
