Geochemical and palynological evidence for the earliest land plants in Middle Ordovician shallow marine environments: implications for palaeoclimate and early plant evolution

The Early Paleozoic, specifically the Middle Ordovician, marks a significant period in Earth's history due to the appearance and diversification of life on land. Plant megafossil records indicate vascular plants first appeared in the Early Silurian and by Devonian times had diversified rapidly (e.g. Wellman and Gray, 2000; Steemans et al., 2009; Kenrick et al., 2012; Strother, 2016). However non-vascular plants (bryophytes) predating vascular plants are rarely preserved as body fossils and the bryophyte microfossil record in the lowermost Palaeozoic is scarce. This lack of fossil data severely limits our understanding of life in the earliest non-marine environments and the origin of land plants.

In comparison to microfossils, molecular fossils (biomarkers) are more ubiquitous in the sedimentary record and have a higher preservation potential, thus providing a powerful tool to track terrestrial signals when microfossils are either scarce or absent. Molecular proxies such as long chain n-alkanes have been used extensively in both modern and ancient environments to identify terrestrial contributions to the organic matter (e.g. Eglinton and Hamilton, 1967; Ficken et al., 2000; Hautevelle et al., 2006). Furthermore, the isotopic composition of these molecules can be used to further distinguish between sources (e.g. Bird et al., 1995; Sikes et al., 2009; Rouillard et al., 2016). That being said, only relatively few studies have combined palynological evidence with geochemical proxies to assess geochemical signatures of early land plants. 

This work presents biomarker and palynological data of the  Middle Ordovicianupper Goldwyer Formation  which records the earliest occurrence of land plant microfossils (cryptospores) in Australia. The higher-molecular-weight n-alkane distributions and their isotopic compositions recorded in the upper Goldwyer show high resemblances to modern day bryophytes and aquatic macrophytes. Retene, a biomarker conventionally used as a proxy for gymnosperms, was also identified in some extracts. The presence of retene in Middle Ordovician (this work) and Silurian (Romero-Sarmiento et al., 2010) rocks indicates conifers are not the sole source of this compound.

Linking biomarkers and palynology has shown to beuseful in the study of early land plants where fossil records are sparse. Molecular and isotopic proxies distinctive of these plants can provide a more complete record of the geographical distribution of early land plants, providing useful information to understand their early evolution. 


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Tags: 2016 Australian Organic Geochemistry Conference (AOGC 2016)., Biomarkers, Canning Basin, EARTH SCIENCES, Published_External
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network