New materials of plant fossils from the Lower Devonian of Hezhang County, Guizhou Province
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Abstract:
The Early Devonian witnessed the early diversity of vascular land plants. Floras of this epoch are widely distributed in Australia, Canada, Britain, South China, etc. In this study, based on new fossil materials collected from the Lower Devonian Danlin Formation in Hezhang, Guizhou Province, Southwestern China, we recognize Zosterophyllum sp., a plant with unidentified axis, and a spiny plant. Our new materials augment the Early Devonian flora of Hezhang and further verify the dominance of Zosterophyllopsida in the Early Devonian floras of South China. We also compare the Hezhang Flora with plant assemblages from other localities in the South China Plate and other typical relevant floras around the world. The Early Devonian Hezhang Flora shares Demersatheca contigua (Li et Cai) Li et Edwards with other localities in southern China and consists of the cosmopolitan genus Zosterophyllum Penhallow. In addition, a spiny plant recognized from this flora is rarely seen from other coeval floras in southern China, which may be related to the uniqueness of this flora. However, more research is needed to reveal the paleontological characters and paleoecological significance of these new plants.
