The Early Devonian fungus Mycokidstonia sphaerialoides from the Rhynie chert is a member of the Ambisporaceae (Glomeromycota, Archaeosporales), not an ascomycete

1991 ◽

Vol 82 (4) ◽

pp. 324-332 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

A. G. Lyon ◽

Dianne Edwards

Keyword(s):

Lower Devonian ◽

New Genus ◽

New Genus And Species ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Precise Positioning ◽

Cortical Zone ◽

Lack Of Information ◽

Rhynie Chert

ABSTRACTFragmentary remains of a vascular sporophyte from the Rhynie Chert are described as a new genus and species, Trichopherophyton teuchansii. The plant, which is characterised by the possession of unicellular spinous hairs, exarch xylem and laterally attached, marginally dehiscent sporangia, is assigned to the Zosterophyllophytina, but lack of information on the arrangement of sporangia prevents its more precise positioning within the subdivision. Unusual features include the combination of circinate tips to axes with almost terete xylem strands, and the lack of a thick-walled outer cortical zone. Associated axes, lacking spinous hairs, but having papillate or rhizoid-like epidermal emergences, are interpreted as likely rhizomes of Trichopherophyton. Features, such as unicellular spinous hairs, rhizoid-like emergences, circinate tipsand parenchymatous cortex are considered in relation to the functioning and growth of aplant inhabiting an early Devonian wetland.

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Fungi from the Rhynie chert: a view from the dark side

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s026359330000081x ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 94 (4) ◽

pp. 457-473 ◽

Cited By ~ 96

Author(s):

T. N. Taylor ◽

S. D. Klavins ◽

M. Krings ◽

E. L. Taylor ◽

H. Kerp ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fossil Record ◽

Molecular Data ◽

Host Responses ◽

Dark Side ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Mycorrhizal Associations ◽

Rhynie Chert ◽

Complex Ecosystem ◽

Taxonomic Groups ◽

Fungal Interactions

ABSTRACTThe exquisite preservation of organisms in the Early Devonian Rhynie chert ecosystem has permitted the documentation of the morphology and life history biology of fungi belonging to several major taxonomic groups (e.g., Chytridiomycota, Ascomycota, Glomeromycota). The Rhynie chert also provides the first unequivocal evidence in the fossil record of fungal interactions that can in turn be compared with those in modern ecosystems. These interactions in the Rhynie chert involve both green algae and macroplants, with examples of saprophytism, parasitism, and mutualism, including the earliest mycorrhizal associations and lichen symbiosis known to date in the fossil record. Especially significant are several types of specific host responses to fungal infection that indicate that these plants had already evolved methods of defence similar and perhaps analogous to those of extant plants. This suggests that mechanisms underlying the establishment and sustenance of associations of fungi with land plants were well in place prior to the Early Devonian. In addition, a more complete understanding of the microbial organisms involved in this complex ecosystem can also provide calibration points for phylogenies based on molecular data analysis. The richness of the microbial community in the Rhynie chert holds tremendous potential for documenting additional fungal groups, which permits speculation about further interactions with abiotic and biotic components of the environment.

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A new crustacean from the Early Devonian Rhynie chert, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s026359330000047x ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 93 (4) ◽

pp. 355-382 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Stephen R. Fayers ◽

Nigel H. Trewin

Keyword(s):

Hydrothermal Activity ◽

The Body ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Rhynie Chert

ABSTRACTA new crustacean, Castracollis wilsonae is described from a loose block of the Early Devonian Rhynie chert, found in the vicinity of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It differs markedly from Lepidocaris rhyniensis, Scourfield 1926, the only other crustacean found in the Rhynie chert.The material comprises complete individuals up to 8 mm long and fragmentary remains. The head is normally damaged and detached from the body, and damage to the anterior of the trunk suggests the specimens are exuviae. The head appears domed with a labrum, robust mandibles, and long biramous antennae. A few specimens exhibit a probable detached cephalo-thoracicshield. The trunk is multi-segmented, comprising similar ring-like somites. The thorax variably comprises up to 26 segments. The anterior 11 segments possess similar long, phyllopodous appendages, the remainder variably possess 10 to 15 phyllopodous appendages with a disposition of one per somite. The abdomen comprises up to 28 apodous segments. The posterior of the body comprises a telson with two furcal rami.The crustacean is most probably a calmanostracan branchiopod. It occurs associated with Lepidocaris, charophytes, cyanobacteria and coprolites within a ‘clotted’ chert texture, indicating subaqueous deposition, most probably in a temporary freshwater pool in an area of surficial hydrothermal activity.

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Evidence for an early terrestrial food web: coprolites from the Early Devonian Rhynie chert

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0263593300000754 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 94 (4) ◽

pp. 371-389 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Kate S. Habgood ◽

Hagen Hass ◽

Hans Kerp

Keyword(s):

Distinct Group ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Freshwater Ecosystems ◽

The Other ◽

List Type ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Amorphous Content ◽

Nutritional Strategy ◽

Rhynie Chert ◽

The Continuum

ABSTRACTFossils in the Pragian Rhynie cherts, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, are preserved with exquisite cellular detail, and provide much information on Early Devonian terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The fossils include abundant and diverse coprolites which demonstrate the existence of consumers differing in life-habit and diet. The coprolites are small (0.5–3 mm) and diverse in morphology and content, including groups of amorphous coprolites as well as coprolites with identifiable, particulate content. The present authors define three new ichnogenera to accommodate these coprolites: •Lancifaex encompasses elongate coprolites with particulate content, and includes three ichnospecies, distinguished on morphology, L. simplex, L. divisa and L. moniliforma.•Rotundafaex encompasses rotund coprolites with particulate content, and includes a single ichnospecies, R. aggregata.•Bacillafaex encompasses rod-shaped coprolites with amorphous content, and includes two ichnospecies, distinguished on size, B. constipatus and B. mina. Typically, plant spores do not dominate the content of these coprolites, but the population does include some spore-rich coprolites. The presence of spore-rich coprolites in this diverse assemblage adds evidence to the debate on spore-feeding as a nutritional strategy in early terrestrial ecosystems. The authors conclude that the coprolites described here indicate at least four types of consumer including detritivores and herbivores. Spore-rich coprolites might suggest sporivory; however, comparison with the faeces of modern millipedes demonstrates that they might equally well be the product of detritivores. The continuum observed here between spore-rich and spore-poor coprolites implies that, in this assemblage, spore-rich coprolites do not constitute a distinct group. Rather, they are part of a group of elongate, ellipsoidal coprolites with heterogeneous content that includes, at one extreme, coprolites which lack plant spores, and at the other, coprolites which contain abundant plant spores. Most coprolites in this group fall somewhere between the two extr

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New gametophytes from the Early Devonian Rhynie chert

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0263593303000294 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 94 (04) ◽

pp. 411 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Keyword(s):

Early Devonian ◽

Rhynie Chert

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New gametophytes from the Early Devonian Rhynie chert

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s026359330000078x ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 94 (4) ◽

pp. 411-428 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Hans Kerp ◽

Nigel H. Trewin ◽

Hagen Hass

Keyword(s):

Reproductive Cycle ◽

Land Plants ◽

Monotypic Genus ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Male And Female ◽

Rhynie Chert ◽

Dense Stand

ABSTRACTSeveral new gametophytes are described from the Early Devonian Rhynie chert. The new monotypic genus Remyophyton, being the gametophyte of Rhynia, is represented by a dense stand of in situ preserved gametophytes with antheridia- and archegonia-bearing axes. The gametophytes are remarkably small in comparison to those of other Rhynie chert plants. The generic diagnoses of Lyonophyton and Langiophyton are emended to include archegonia- and antheridiabearing axes. All essential stages of the reproductive cycle, i.e. sporophytes, and male and female gametophytes, can now be demonstrated for three of the six land plants from the Rhynie chert, i.e. Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii, Aglaophyton major and Horneophyton lignieri.

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On the problematic placement of the fossil arthropod Devonopilio hutchinsoni in Opiliones (Arachnida)

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.4915.2.10 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4915 (2) ◽

pp. 294-298

Author(s):

ABEL PÉREZ-GONZÁLEZ ◽

JEFFREY W. SHULTZ

Keyword(s):

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

Body Parts ◽

Compelling Evidence ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Terrestrial Arthropods ◽

Rhynie Chert ◽

Arthropod Cuticle ◽

Early Palaeozoic ◽

Source Of Information ◽

Single Slide

Harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones) were among the earliest terrestrial arthropods but their unmineralized exoskeletons are scarce and often fragmentary as fossils (Palencia et al. 2019). Consequently, the discovery and interpretations of fossil harvestmen from the early Palaeozoic can have disproportionate effects on the understanding of evolution in Opiliones. Recently, Devonopilio hutchinsoni Tihelka, Tian & Cai, 2020, was described as a new fossil harvestman from the well-known Rhynie chert deposits of Scotland, an important source of information on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems of the early Devonian (Tihelka et al. 2020). This species would be one of the earliest records of harvestmen. The description was based on a single slide showing fragments of arthropod cuticle, which Tihelka et al. interpreted as a harvestmen penis and unspecified associated body parts. As specialists on harvestman morphology and systematics, we were intrigued by these conclusions. However, based on the material presented by Tihelka et al. we find no compelling evidence supporting the proposal that the specimen is a harvestman.

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Subaqueous silicification of the contents of small ponds in an Early Devonian hot-spring complex, Rhynie, Scotland

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e03-065 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 40 (11) ◽

pp. 1697-1712 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Nigel H Trewin ◽

Stephen R Fayers ◽

Ruth Kelman

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Hot Springs ◽

Hot Spring ◽

Aquatic Biota ◽

Early Devonian ◽

Climatic Extremes ◽

Rhynie Chert ◽

Freshwater Biota ◽

Shallow Ponds ◽

Surface Environment

The Early Devonian Rhynie and Windyfield cherts of northeast Scotland originated as siliceous sinters deposited by hot springs. Silicification affected both subaerial and subaqueous environments, preserving a diverse terrestrial and freshwater biota. Cherts originally deposited in small shallow pools can be recognised on the basis of both texture and fossil content. Textures comprise clotted and microcoprolitic textures, bacterial coatings on plant axes that can be stromatolitic, and a variety of bacterial and fungal meshworks. The crustacean Lepidocaris, the euthycarcinoid Heterocrania, the charophyte alga Palaeonitella, and chytrid fungi are typical elements of the aquatic biota. Observations of modern hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A., demonstrate that shallow ponds and streams on low-angle outwash areas and dormant vent orifices provide suitable environmental analogues. Textures comparable to those described from Rhynie are recorded from Yellowstone sinters, but examples of the rapid and complete silicification of delicate organic structures as seen in a few of the Rhynie chert beds have not been noted. Petrographic textures comparable to those seen in the cherts of freshwater origin from Rhynie occur in modern stream sinters at Yellowstone, where they form from waters at 2028 °C and with a pH of 8.7. This similarity occurs despite differences in environment at Yellowstone, such as the oxidizing surface environment, water table fluctuations, complex modern vegetation, fixing of silica by diatoms, and climatic extremes. Thus there are close similarities between textures seen in the Rhynie cherts and Yellowstone sinters deposited in freshwater pools and streams by hot springs.

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