Characteristics of the Lepidodendron Fossils from the Lower Permian Taiyuan Formation in Xishan area of Taiyuan,Shanxi
The Cathaysia flora is one of the four famous floras in Late Paleozoic,and Lepidodendron is widely distributed in the four major floras.In the Cathaysia flora,Lepidodendron is regarded as the oriental form due to its distinctive characteristics,such as large leaf traces without air passage marks under the leaf.This is different from the Lepidodendron in the Euramerican flora that have air passage mark traces.In this study,three species of Lepidodendron from the Lower Permian Taiyuan Formation in the Xishan area of Taiyuan,Shanxi,are identi-fied and been investigated in detail.According to the fossil records of Lepidodendron in the world and the latest results of the phylogeny,we believe that the Lepidodendron genus may originate in the late of Late Devonian from South China,then it arrived at the Asia Minor of Turkey over sea in the early of Early Carboniferous,and at the end it entered into North America across Western Europe.Another route can be that the genus reached to European Russia from the Asia Minor and then spread to the eastern European and central Asia in the Carbonif-erous and Permian period.
LepidodendronXishan area in TaiyuanCathaysia floraLower Permianphytogeography
万方数据
维普
