Late Paleozoic (Stephanian) Terrestrial Floras in Offshore Marine Environments

俄亥俄大学的晚石炭世(斯蒂芬B-C)收藏品包括7000多个三维的、细胞保存完好的北美中大陆旋回植物化石。这是世界上保存最完好、地层学最完整的斯蒂芬植物化石收藏。来自每个旋回的植物保存在近海海相页岩中，并构成了来自不同陆地环境的组合。使用薄片、剥离技术和扫描电子显微镜对细胞特征进行系统分析，以记录细胞特征，将确定存在哪些斯蒂芬植物群，并识别新的分类群。通常，很少有近海海洋单元含有保存完好的陆地植物残骸。影响保存在中至外陆架近海环境旋回体层中的这些斯蒂芬植物的丝裂制约因素尚未完全确定。海洋生物与运输的植物废弃物的相互作用和对沉积条件的了解将解决所涉及的挖掘途径。这项关于植物系统学和海洋区划限制的综合研究具有重要意义，因为它允许对近海海洋环境中的陆地植物群进行第一次广泛的记录和分析。这个数据库将允许与来自煤炭沼泽和更干燥的高地环境的稀有斯蒂芬植物群落进行详细比较。

Late Carboniferous (Stephanian B-C) collections at Ohio University include over 7,000 three-dimensional, cellularly preserved plant fossils from North American midcontinent cyclothems. This is the best preserved and most stratigraphically complete collection of Stephanian plant fossils in the world. The plants from each cyclothem are preserved in offshore marine shales and constitute an assemblage from a diverse suite of terrestrial environments. Systematic analysis using thin sectioning, peel techniques and scanning electron microscopy to document the cellular features will determine which Stephanian plant groups are present and identify new taxa. Typically, very few offshore marine units contain well preserved terrestrial plant debris. The taphonomic constraints influencing preservation of these Stephanian plants deposited in cyclothem beds of middle to outer shelf offshore marine environments have not been fully determined. Marine organism interaction with the transported plant debris and an understanding of the depositional conditions will resolve the taphonomic pathways involved. This combined research on plant systematics and marine taphonomic constraints is significant because it allows the first extensive documentation and analysis of terrestrial floras in the offshore marine environment. This data base will allow detailed comparison with rare Stephanian floral communities from coal swamps and the drier upland environments.