An Investigation of Cambrian and Ordovician Plant Spores

Boston College, Chestnut Hill MA

Investigators

Abstract

Prior to the middle Silurian (425 Ma) when the first plants with woody tissue appeared, the fossil record of plant life on land is represented only by spores. In the past few decades, Paleobotanists have established that this spore record began about 475 million years ago and that the earliest land plants were probably related to the present day bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Recent discoveries of spores from Middle Cambrian rocks in Tennessee now put the origin of land plants back yet another 50 million years, extending the tenure of this early bryophytic biome. The purpose of this research project is to collect, describe, and study this new evidence for the greater antiquity of the plant kingdom. As we work on describing new species, we hope to establish the timing and stratigraphic extent of these microfossils. With the addition of stable isotope studies, we hope to expand their usefulness in helping to constrain global geochemical models of ancient atmospheres and carbon flux in ancient ecosystems. But the primary purpose of this research is to gain fundamental knowledge about diversity and extent of plant life on the surface of the Earth during the Cambro-Ordovician (545-450 Ma) time interval. Project goals will be achieved through a combination of original fieldwork and comparative examination of museum specimens. Educational outreach for this project will be accomplished via the world wide web.