Title

Terrestrial Plant Fossils from the Mississippian Diamond Peak Formation, White Pine Range, Eastern Nevada

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Geological Sciences

Publication Date

12-21-2001

Abstract

Land plant remains are preserved in shallow water turbidite deposits within the upper Mississippian Diamond Peak Formation in the northern White Pine Range, White Pine County, Nevada. These deposits represent debris shed eastward from the Antler Mountains into the Antler Basin. Poor preservation limits the precision of identification, but six forms can be recognized including Lepidodendron cf. aculeatum and Lycopodites sp., Archacocalamites radiatus, A. species, and Sphenophyllum. An axis with a spiral branching pattern may represent a seed plant. Several specimens exhibit a consistent morphology of whorls or bracts with a cruciate cross section; these may be reproductive organs. This assemblage indicates that a Euramerican-type swamp flora existed on the eastern flank of the Mississippian Antler Mountains, typical of low-latitude tropical floras of the Carboniferous.

Comments

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Journal

Paleobios

Rights

Copyright © 2001 University of California Museum of Paleontology

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