Sprecher
Beschreibung
The Permian-Triassic extinction event was the largest mass-extinction event in Earth’s history, but only very limited fossil floras have been preserved in the extremely arid environment of the Early and Middle Triassic. Here we present a unique fossil flora from the Upper Buntsandstein (Anisian, early Middle Triassic) of Üdingen, Germany.
Our locality bridges the (paleo-)geographical gap between two additional contemporary floras from Italy and the Vosges mountains. In comparison, we recognize a lower diversity in the Üdingen flora which is dominated by conifers such as Voltzia heterophylla.
The Üdingen flora contains excellently preserved specimens such as 3-dimensional female cones of Voltzia heterophylla, and a couple of partly 3-dimensionally preserved horsetail stems. Also remarkable is the presence of a horsetail branch with its leaves still attached to the node. This characteristic allows us to ascribe the horsetail fossils to the genus Neocalamites, while it was previously assumed that all Sphenophytes from this and other contemporary localities belonged to the species Equisetites mougeotii. Because of the rare occurrence of Neocalamites in the Anisian and due to the (morphological) difference(s) to other Neocalamites species reported from the Anisian of Western Europe, we have concluded the fossils from Üdingen to be a new species called Neocalamites vanderburghii. The availability of more complete plant fossils and the improved taxonomical assignment has important implications for our understanding of Triassic vegetation.