The Rhynie Chert early land plants: palaeo-ecophysiological and taphonomic analogues

摘要

Current interpretation of the early evolution of land plants is based on fossil plants preserved in exquisite detail within siliceous sinter deposited by the activity of terrestrial hot springs at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland during the Lower Devonian (e.g. Powell et al.). The Rhynie deposit's association with andesitic lavas and tuffs, Au-As mineralisation, quartz-adularia-sericite alteration assemblage and sinter deposits suggest that the cherts are the surface expression of a low-sulphidation, alkali-chloride hydrothermal system dominated by meteoric waters (e.g. Rice and Trewin).