Reconstructing the Whole Plant Archaeopteris, A Late Devonian Progymnosperm Tree, and its Forested Landscapes

Scheckler 9728719 古蕨属（Archaeopteris）是一种裸子植物，在古生代中期（泥盆纪晚期，约3.6 - 3.5亿年前）开始统治地球上的第一批森林。 它们是已灭绝的裸子植物，与种子植物有许多相似之处，但由孢子而不是种子繁殖。这些最初的森林之所以特别有几个原因。一个是他们一次只有一到三种古羊齿。另一个原因是这些树木的生长和分枝是自限的。虽然高（高达30米/90它），有时宽（高达1米/3它），树木并不老。这些树只能活3-20年。 古羊齿是种子植物近缘种生长和繁殖的重要模式。 纽约宾厄姆顿附近的采石场中露出了几片被掩埋的森林。 这些树木显示了古代洪泛平原的景观和植被是如何随着这种裸子植物的出现而变化的。新的化石标本也显示了古羊齿是如何生长的。该项目通过重建从树冠到根系的整个植物，并绘制这些被掩埋森林的植被图，研究树木生长在这些新森林生态系统的生产和传播中的作用。 在地球历史上，没有任何一种植物能如此主宰世界。 因此，这些古老的森林提供了关于物种多样性或物种贫乏在森林稳定性方面的作用及其在干扰后恢复能力的重要信息。

Scheckler 9728719 Archaeopteris, a progymnosperm tree, dominated the Earth's first forests that began in the mid Paleozoic (Late Devonian, about 360-350 million years ago). These are extinct progymnosperm plants with many similarities to seed plants, but that reproduced by spores rather than seeds. These first forests are peculiar for several reasons. One is that they had only one to three species of Archaeopteris at a time. Another is that these trees grew and branched in self-limited way. Although tall (up to 30 m/90 It) and sometimes wide (up to 1 m/3 It), the trees were not old. The trees lived for only 3-20 years. Archaeopteris is an important model for growth and reproduction of potential ancestral seed plant relatives. Several buried forests are exposed in stone quarries near Binghamton, New York. The trees show how the landscape and vegetation of ancient floodplains changed with the emergence of this progymnosperm tree. New fossil specimens also show how Archaeopteris grew. This project examines the role of tree growth in production and spread of these new forest ecosystems by reconstructing the whole plant, from crown to roots, and by mapping the vegetation of these buried forests. At no other time in Earth's history did one plant type so dominate the world. These ancient forests thus provide important information about the role of species diversity or species poverty in the stability of forests and their ability to recover following disturbance.