CRESSLER, WALTER. Department of Geology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316. - A diverse Late Devonian flora preserved in a fluvial setting, north-central Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
The Late Devonian Red Hill locality in Clinton County, north-central
Pennsylvania has yielded an Archaeopteris-dominated plant
fossil assemblage that includes cormose lycopsids, seed cupules,
sphenopteroid whole-plants, and Barinophyton citrulliforme.
The genus Archaeopteris is represented at Red Hill by the
foliage species A. macilenta and A. hibernica. The seed
cupules of Red Hill are contemporaneous with the earliest known grade
of gymnospermous evolution. Palynological analysis of the Red Hill
deposits has revealed an age of Fa2c, like that of the Elkinsia
beds in Elkins, West Virginia. The Red Hill cupules are similar in
morphology to those of Elkinsia, but exhibit a greater degree
of fusion of the cupule quadrants. Lycopsids are mainly represented
at Red Hill by numerous axes, many of which came from plants that were
the size of small shrubs. Included among these axes are specimens
with cormose bases and attached rootlets. A large terminal axis
fragment (10 cm) of Barinophyton citrulliforme has come out of
the same bedding plane as the seed cupules. It has five
alternately-arranged strobili that are smaller in size toward the
distal end of the axis. There are several specimens of a fern or
seed-fern with sphenopteroid foliage from Red Hill that include
attached stems and roots. Red Hill is an outcrop of the Duncannon
Member of the Catskill Formation. The kilometer-long exposure
represents an array of fluvial facies from floodplain to channel
deposits, in addition to floodplain paleosols. Together with its
relatively diverse plant fossil assemblage, the sediments and
paleosols of the Red Hill outcrop are conducive to a detailed
reconstruction of the landscape in which grew a Late Devonian
subtropical lowland Archaeopteris forest.
Key words: Archaeopteris, Barinophyton citrulliforme, Devonian, Isoetales, Lycopsida, Spermatopsida, Sphenopteris