Paulophyton from the Carboniferous of Paracas, Peru: a rare but widespread fossil plant with unusual morphology

Abstract

Paulophyton has the appearance of an Early or Middle Devonian plant but is found in the Carboniferous. This report from Peru expands our knowledge of its unusual biogeographic distribution (Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Germany) that includes the southern temperate Paracas realm (Gondwana) and the Carboniferous tropics (Euramerican Realm). Stratigraphically Paulophyton is known from the late Tournaisian (Mississippian) to the middle of the Pennsylvanian. It is an uncommon but apparently widespread plant characterized by leafl ess, thin axes with small, terminal sporangia. It is found mostly as very small fragments, a fact that makes it easy to overlook. Paulophyton may be the representative of a plant group that has otherwise not yet been recognized in the Carboniferous.