THE FIRST DEVONIAN FORESTS ON EARTH; APPEARANCE, COMPOSITION OF PLANTS, TYPES OF FOREST AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION

Abstract

The appearance, composition, types and distribution of the first Devonian fossil forests on Earth, the finds of which are extremely rare, are considered. There are 5 known localities: three in the Middle Devonian (the Middle Eifelian locality Lindlar in Germany; two Upper Givetian localities Kairo and Gilboa in the USA) and two in the Upper Devonian (the Lower Frasnian locality Munindalen on Svalbard Norway and the Upper Famennian locality Xinhang in China). The terms fossil foresst, forests community and types of fossil forest, not mentioned by previous researchers, are highlighted, and a detailed plan for their description is proposed (formulations are given only for remains in the status in situ). The stratigraphic sequence of the first forests in the Eifelian Century — the Late Devonian epoch of the Earth’s history is presented, taking into account the recently published data. Two types of forests have been identified with the indication of the dominant genera in each: the cladoxylopsid type, common in the Middle Devonian and the lycopodiophyte type, characteristic of the Upper Devonian.