The Pennsylvanian lowlands of western Pangea are most widely known because of their diverse wetland floras of arborescent and herbaceous ferns and arborescent horsetails and clubmosses. credited in large component to taphonomic bias toward preservation of wetland plant life. Prior paleobotanical and sedimentological evaluation from the Markley Development of most recent Pennsylvanian (Gzhelian) age group from north central Tx U.S.A indicates close relationship between lithofacies and distinct wetland and dryland megaflora VO-Ohpic trihydrate assemblages. Right here we present an in depth analysis one particular localities a section uncommon in filled with abundant palynomorphs from the low Markley Development. Paleobotanical palynological and lithological data from a section considered to represent an individual interglacial/glacial stage are integrated and examined to make a complicated picture of the evolving landscaping. Megafloral data from through the entire Markley Development present that conifer-dominated dryland floras take place exclusively in extremely leached kaolinite bedrooms most likely eroded from root soils whereas a mosaic of wetland floras take up histosols ultisols and fluvial overbank debris. Palynological data generally conform to this pattern but reveal a more complex picture. An assemblage of combined wetland and dryland palynofloral taxa is definitely interpolated between a dryland assemblage and an overlying histosol comprising wetland taxa. With VO-Ohpic trihydrate this section as well as elsewhere in the Markley Formation kaolinite and overlying organic mattresses appear to possess formed as a single genetic unit with the kaolinite forming an impermeable aquiclude upon which a poorly drained wetland subsequently formed. Within a single inferred glacial/interglacial cycle lithological data indicate significant fluctuations in water availability tracked by changes in palynofloral and megafloral taxa. Palynology reveals that elements of the dryland floras appear at low VO-Ohpic trihydrate abundance even within wetland deposits. The combined data indicate a complex pattern of succession and suggest a mosaic of dryland and wetland plant communities in the Late Pennsylvanian. Our data alone cannot show whether dryland and wetland assemblages succeed one another temporally VO-Ohpic trihydrate or coexisted on the landscape. However the combined evidence suggests relatively close spatial proximity within a fragmenting and increasingly arid environment. or conifers (DiMichele et al. 2005 Kaolinitic beds (lithofacies 2) contain a distinctive low diversity megaflora of walchian conifers the seed ferns and sp. and sphenopsids and and other medullosans species of Marattiales and and spp. but also includes abundant medullosan seed fernsand and (bed 4). Above the coal lie a series of medium gray to almost black claystones and mudstones that together with the coals comprise the organic facies of this sedimentary package. These clastic units display contorted or obscure laminations as well as vertical rhizoliths up to 5 mm in diameter slickenplanes vertical cracking manganese coatings orange mottles and fragments of plant axes (beds 5-11). Fusain fragments occur in beds 10-11. Near the top of the exposure lies a thin organic-rich paper shale consisting of highly compressed unidentifiable plant fragments (bed 12) and overlain by a thin highly friable coal with vitric streaks at the top (bed 13). The coal is overlain by an organic-rich indurated siltstone (bed 14) containing large compressions of and Rabbit Polyclonal to CRMP-2 (phospho-Ser522). two types of seeds of unknown affinities (Figs. 1 and ?and22). Fig. 2 Lycopod B East locality outcrop (informal collection name 1990-31; USNM localities 40081 40682 and 43546). Indicated are the bottom and top of the sampled and measured section. Numbers on the image indicate the lithologically distinct units each sampled … The exposure at Lycopod B West correlates precisely with Lycopod B East and comprises a complete ‘typical’ Markley Formation sedimentary package from paleosol to cover sandstone (Fig. 1). Lycopod B Western had not been sampled for palynomorphs nonetheless it consists of significant suites of vegetable megafossils. The organic period is about half the thickness from the period at Lycopod B East as well as the coals at Lycopod B East quality into organic-rich clastics at Lycopod B Western. VO-Ohpic trihydrate A unit related to bed 12 of Lycopod B East consists of and also happens inside a siltstone correlative with bed 14 of Lycopod B East. This fossiliferous siltstone can be.