The origin and early evolution of land plants in the mid-Palaeozoic era, between about 480 and 360 million years ago, was an important event in the history of life, with far-reaching consequences for the evolution of terrestrial organisms and global environments. A recent surge of interest, catalysed by palaeobotanical discoveries and advances in the systematics of living plants, provides a revised perspective on the evolution of early land plants and suggests new directions for future research.

/pdf/the-origin-and-early-evolution-of-plants-on-land-25o6hryi4f.pdf

The origin and early evolution of plants on land

https://sites.williams.edu/rcox/files/2013/01/MudrockChem.pdf

The influence of sediment recycling and basement composition on evolution of mudrock chemistry in the southwestern United States

Terra Australis Orogen: Rodinia breakup and development of the Pacific and Iapetus margins of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic

[1] Uppermost Cretaceous to Eocene marine sedimentary sequences occur both to the south and north of the Yarlung Zangbo suture in south central Tibet. They consist of Indian-margin strata of the northern Tethyan Himalaya and Asian-margin strata of the Gangdese forearc. Both assemblages are characterized by major changes in depositional environment and sedimentary provenance at ∼65 Ma and an appearance of detrital chromium-rich spinel of ophiolite affinity (TiO2 generally <0.1 wt%) during the Paleocene. Ophiolitic melange exposed along the suture could have provided a source for detrital spinel. The melange occurs in the hanging wall of a north dipping, south directed mylonitic shear zone which includes a tectonic sliver of mafic schist. Amphibole from the schist yields 40Ar/39Ar ages of ∼63 Ma, which we attribute to cooling during slip along the shear zone and southward obduction of the melange. Melange obduction was coeval with the development of an angular unconformity within the Gangdese forearc basin to the north (between late Maastrichtian time and ∼62 Ma). Upper Paleocene to middle Eocene sandstones in the northern Tethyan Himalaya yield 200–120 Ma U-Pb detrital zircon ages and 190–170 Ma 40Ar/39Ar detrital mica ages. These detrital grains were most likely sourced from regions north of the Yarlung Zangbo suture, suggesting that onset of India-Asia collision in south central Tibet is middle Eocene or older in age. Collectively, our results support previous suggestions that oceanic rocks were obducted onto the northern margin of India during latest Cretaceous–earliest Tertiary time. Coeval changes in Gangdese forearc sedimentation raise the possibility that this obduction event marks onset of tectonic interaction between India and Asia at ∼65 Ma. Alternatively, in concert with the conventional view of Eocene collision initiation, the obducted oceanic rocks may be of intraoceanic origin, while coeval changes in Gangdese forearc sedimentation may be a consequence of an increase in the rate of ocean-continent convergence following the demise of the intraoceanic subduction zone.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2004TC001729

Paleocene–Eocene record of ophiolite obduction and initial India‐Asia collision, south central Tibet

Archaefructaceae is proposed as a new basal angiosperm family of herbaceous aquatic plants. This family consists of the fossils Archaefructus liaoningensis and A. sinensis sp. nov. Complete plants from roots to fertile shoots are known. Their age is a minimum of 124.6 million years from the Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China. They are a sister clade to all angiosperms when their characters are included in a combined three-gene molecular and morphological analysis. Their reproductive axes lack petals and sepals and bear stamens in pairs below conduplicate carpels.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/296/5569/899.full.pdf

Archaefructaceae, a New Basal Angiosperm Family

This chapter provides an overview of the Ordovician systems. With the advent of the Ordovician, comes a more complete record of the history of the Tasman Orthogeosyncline. In this structure, it is only in eastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales that there are extensive occurrences of unfossiliferous rocks of possible Ordovician age. Deposition continued over large parts of the northwestern part of the continent, and in the Amadeus Basin where, except for the uppermost Ordovician, a more or less continuous history may be deciphered. In New Zealand, well-defined Ordovician rocks of both the graptolitic and shelly facies are known in the South Island, namely, in the northwest Nelson region and in the southwest Fiordland. It is known that the graptolite-bearing succession of both these localities, though somewhat less complete, corresponds very closely to that in Victoria. In the Ordovician, as in the Cambrian, seas probably covered the three basins—Officer, Amadeus, and Ngalia basins—and at least some of the intervening areas. In the Officer Basin, probable Ordovician rocks are known along the northern edge, where they dip basinward but little is yet known of their extent. The presence of Ordovician sediments in the Ngalia Basin has yet to be demonstrated.

The Ordovician System

This chapter provides an overview of the Silurian system. Apart from relatively minor occurrences in the northern part of the Perth Basin and in the Carnarvon Basin, in Western Australia, and rather more widespread occurrences in the Amadeus Basin, the only Silurian rocks on the continent are to be found in the Tasman Orthogeosyncline. The bulk of these outcrop in the southeastern States, though their presence in the subsurface beneath the Mesozoic sediments of the Artesian Basin has been proved by deep exploratory wells in some areas. The sediments in the two Western Australian Basins are limestones, dolomites, and cross-stratified quartzose sandstones, products of deposition in broad shallow-water basins with margins of low relief. The Amadeus Basin was receiving only terrestrial sediments. In the Lachlan Geosyncline, the pattern of arches and troughs had been greatly modified during the Benambran Orogeny, the only structures that retained their characters being the Molong–Canberra High and the Melbourne Trough. Following this deformation, there was extensive acid and intermediate volcanism that seems to have been largely restricted to the deformed areas.

The Silurian System

This chapter provides an overview of the Jurassic system. The Jurassic strata in Australia are confined to the Canning, Carnarvon, and Perth Basins in Western Australia, and to the Carpentaria, Laura, Maryborough, Great Artesian, Polda, Mulgildie, and Clarence–Moreton Basins in eastern Australia. The deposits in eastern Australia are almost exclusively nonmarine. Much of the Western Australian Jurassic is marine but only that in the western part of the Carnarvon Basin is regarded as a deep-water deposit. Volcanism was greatly restricted both in time and space in the Jurassic of Australia. In New Zealand, the Jurassic rocks are geographically associated and, on the whole, conformable with those of the Triassic System. They are lithologically similar to the Triassic but, especially in their upper portions, they are less indurated, finer bedded, and contain more mudstone and less visible feldspar. The Middle Jurassic saw a marked increase in the area of sedimentation in the Great Artesian Basin. Throughout this basin, and the Mulgildie and Clarence–Moreton Basins, a sequence of lithic sandstone, shale, sideritic mudstone, and sub-bituminous coal accumulated, apparently under fluviatile to swamp conditions. The Walloon reaches a maximum thickness of 600 m in the Clarence-Moreton Basin where it extends into the Upper Jurassic at least.

The Jurassic System

This chapter presents the stratigraphical details of the Carboniferous system in New Zealand and Australia. The Carboniferous rocks of eastern Australia were brought forcibly to the attention of the geological world in 1914 when T.W.E. David led the British Association excursion to observe the evidence of glaciation in the neighborhood of Seaham in the Hunter Valley. The definition of the Carboniferous system in Australia is a matter that has occasioned much difficulty and many disputes. In most areas, there is continuity of deposition from the Devonian into the Carboniferous with a lack of fossils in the region of the boundary, and the choice of the base of the system is, thus, often arbitrary. Its separation from the Permian is vexed not only by the lack of unanimity in the definition of the type Permian, but also by the lack of adequate paleontological criteria for the establishment of late Carboniferous correlations with Europe or America. The Carboniferous history of New Zealand remains to be elucidated, as no rocks that can be positively identified as belonging to this period have yet been discovered.

The Carboniferous System

This chapter provides an overview on Cretaceous paleogeography of Australia and New Zealand. Deposits of Cretaceous age are present in outcrop or subsurface over approximately one-third of the present landmass of Australia. Their great extent is because of widespread deposition in lower Cretaceous epeiric seas that divided the continent into three distinct landmasses. The earliest Cretaceous deposits are somewhat more limited in extent than those of Aptian age, and are predominantly terrestrial. Upper Cretaceous deposits are even more limited in extent, and reasonably complete sequences are known only in certain of the coastal basins of Victoria and Western Australia. Part of the east coastal region of Queensland was strongly deformed during the late Cretaceous Maryburian Orogeny. This marked the close of orogenic activity within the Tasman Orthogeosyncline. The Cretaceous rocks have a widespread distribution in both islands of New Zealand and have been known for many years; however, their stratigraphy, especially in the lower Cretaceous portion, has been greatly confused, largely because of complex structural relationships and paucity of fossils.

K.A.W. Crook

Papers

The Ordovician System

The Silurian System

The Jurassic System

The Carboniferous System

The Cretaceous System