Aldanophyton

Abstract

A few notes about the earliest reported land plant, Aldanophyton.

Keywords: Aldanophyton, Cambrian

Introduction

The earliest record of a possible land plant is the Cambrian age Aldanophyton antiquissimum, unfortunately known from only a single occurrence in Russia. The original, and perhaps only detailed description is in Russian; information in English about this enigmatic fossil is difficult to come by. This page compiles the few details I have been able to glean.

Stirton 1959

"Even more impressive [than the age of Baragwanathia] is the 1953 report from eastern Siberia of small middle Cambrian lycopsids by the Russian paleobotanist, Afrikan Nikolaevich Kryschtofowitch. These oldest known land plants, Aldanophyton antiquissimum, are represented by four impressions of shoots. Though not complete, one specimen is over 80 millimeters long and another is 13 millimeters wide. The stems are thickly covered with thin, delicate leaf structures, some of which are 9 millimeters long. Vascular bundles have been traced through the stems, but there is no evidence of terminal sporangia as in the psilopsids. These most interesting fossil plants, together with the different kinds of spores that have been reported repeatedly from Cambrian rocks, indicate a diversified, though primitive, land flora in the Cambrian. Such evidence inevitably leads to the conclusion that land plants must have originated from marine plants not later than the Proterozoic" (Stirton 1959, pp. 389-390).

Rich et al. 1996

"Thick-walled spores with shapes similar to those of some modern terrestrial plants have been found in Early Cambrian rocks from India and Russia. Aldanophyton consists of a series of carbonized imprints from Siberia with shoots up to 5 inches (13 cm.) wide. It resembles a small lycopod (club moss) with spirally arranged leaves, each about 3 inches (8 mm.) wide. But whether, indeed, it was a vascular plant, and whether or not the fossil spores recovered from rocks of this same time period were contaminant, is not really known. So until more and better material from Cambrian and Ordovician rocks is found, paleobotanists will remain wary of accepting any of these early fossils as true land-plant material" (Rich et al. 1996, pp. 373-374).

References

Rich, Patricia Vickers; Rich, Thomas Hewitt; Fenton, Mildred Adams; Fenton, Carroll Lane 1996: The Fossil Book: A Record of Prehistoric Life. Dover, 740 pp.

Stirton, R.A. 1959: Time, Life and Man. Wiley, 558 pp.