Noeggerathiales as coal-forming plants in Cathaysia: conclusions from an Early Permian vegetational Pompeii in Inner Mongolia

Noeggerathiales are an extinct group of sporebearing plants of uncertain systematic position that are known from Carboniferous and Permian age Euramerican and Cathaysian floras that occurred in presentday Europe, North America, and East Asia. The order Noeggerathiales includes over 50 species of more than 20 fossil genera, but their paleoecology is not well understood yet. Previously this group had been found only in extrabasinal floras or those inhabiting clastic wetlands. Noeggerathiales have never been recorded in coal ball floras. Thus, it is up to now uncertain whether this group has contributed to the formation of coal. Recent investigations of an Early Permian peatforming flora of the Taiyuan Formation near Wuda, Inner Mongolia, which was preserved in a volcanic ash fall has provided evidence that noeggerathialean plants not only existed in the peatforming vegetation but could even be the dominant group in some areas of the coal swamp. The Noeggerathiales in this particular peatforming forest include Tingia unita, Paratingia wudensis, and a new species of Paratingia. Exceptionally well-preserved specimens indicate that these noeggerathialean plants are small trees with a canopy of compound leaves and strobili near the top of an unbranched （monocaulous） stem.     

某些腕足动物与喇叭孔珊瑚的古生态关系

作者根据晚泥盆世在地层中喇叭孔珊瑚在宿主腕足动物壳体上的生长方向、位置及其它状态等的具体分析,判断两者是生前共生还是死后附生。通过对某些腕足动物及其壳体上附着的珊瑚生长阶段、生长方向的分析,恢复了Cyrto-spirifer,Cyrtiopsis,Tenticospirifer及Yunnanellina等属的有利生活方位并验证其固着方式。文中还探讨造成腕足动物贝体两侧不对称的病理性失调和贝体死亡原因。作者认为古生态学的研究应包括古代生物在其被埋藏前的生活状态,居住环境,病理现象及死后的遭遇等全部过程。