Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T13:27:13.016Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evidence for a conducting strand in early Silurian (Llandoverian) plants: implications for the evolution of the land plants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Karl J. Niklas  and
Vassiliki Smocovitis
Karl J. Niklas
Affiliation:
Section of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
Vassiliki Smocovitis
Affiliation:
Section of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Macerations of fragmented plant compressions of Silurian (Llandoverian) age yield sheets of organic material bearing ridges and depressions (interpreted as corresponding to surficial dimensions of cells), fragments of smooth walled tubular elements, and fragments of tubular elements with differentially thickened walls (“banded tubes”). A fragment of tissue (1.2 mm long), consisting of smooth walled tubes (17 ± 6.9 μm in diameter), surrounding 2–3 larger (18.8 ± 2.1 μm in diameter) banded tubes, was isolated from an irregularly shaped, relatively large (1 × 3 mm) compression. Comparisons between (1) fragments of tubular cell types, not organized into strands, isolated from 122 compressions, and (2) dispersed tubular cell types previously reported from the Massanutten Formation and other Silurian formations (Tuscarora and Clinton), reveal no significant morphologic differences. Comparisons between the organization of smooth-walled and banded tubular cell types found in the tissue strand and the organization of cell types in nematophytic plants (Nematothallus, Nematoplexus, Prototaxites) indicate a similarity in construction (tubular) but a lack of correspondence in organization. The strand of tissue is interpreted as representing part of the internal anatomy of a nonvascular land plant of unknown taxonomic affinity. On the basis of analogy with present-day embryophytes, the strand of tubular cell types is inferred to have functioned as a conductive tissue. The significance of “banded tubes” in Silurian strata is discussed, and it is concluded that, until more is known about the anatomy, morphology, and biochemistry of the parent plant(s), the habitat and systematic affinity of these organisms are conjectural.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Spring 1983 , pp. 126 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Arnold, C. A. 1952. A specimen of Prototaxites from the Kettle Point black shale of Ontario. Palaeontographica 93B:45–46.Google Scholar
Arnold, C. A. 1954. Microscopic structure and nomenclature of Prototaxites. 8th Congr. Int. Bot. Paris, 1954, Proc. Ser. 5:137–138.Google Scholar
Banks, H. P. 1975. Early vascular land plants: proof and conjecture. BioScience 25:730–737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bierhorst, D. W. 1960. Observations on tracheary elements. Phytomorphology 10:249–305.Google Scholar
Bower, F. O. 1908. The Origin of a Land Flora. MacMillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaloner, W. G., Mensah, M. K., and Crane, M. D. 1974. Non-vascular land plants from the Devonian of Ghana. Palaeontology 17:925–948.Google Scholar
Craigie, J. S. and McLachlan, J. 1964. Excretion of coloured ultraviolet absorbing substances in marine algae. Can. J. Bot. 42:23–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenack, A. 1972. Chitinozoen und andere mikrofossilien aus der Bohrung Leba Pommern. Palaeontogr. Abt. A. Palaeozool.-Stratigr. 139A:1–87.Google Scholar
Gray, J. and Boucot, A. J. 1977. Early vascular land plants: proof and conjecture. Lethaia 10:145–174.Google Scholar
Gray, J. and Boucot, A. J. 1979. The Devonian land plant Protosalvinia. Lethaia 12:57–63.Google Scholar
Hébant, C. 1973. Acid phosphomonoesterase activities (B-glycerosphosphatase and naphtol AS-MX phosphatase) in conducting tissues of bryophytes. Protoplasma 77:231–241.Google Scholar
Hébant, C. 1977. The Conducting Tissues of Bryophytes. Bryophytonium Bibliotheca 10. Cramer, Lehre.Google Scholar
Lowry, B., Lee, D., and Hébant, C. 1980. The origin of land plants: a new look at an old problem. Taxon 29:183–197.Google Scholar
Lyon, A. G. 1962. On the fragmentary remains of an organism referable to the Nematophytales, from the Rhynie Chert, Nematoplexus rhyniensis gen. et sp. nov. Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 65:79–82.Google Scholar
Nicholson, N. C. 1976. Anatomy of the medulla of Nereocystis. Bot. Mar. 19:23–31.Google Scholar
Nier, A. O. and Gulbrandsen, E. A. 1939. Variation in the relative abundance of the carbon isotopes. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 61:697.Google Scholar
Niklas, K. J. 1976. The role of morphological biochemical reciprocity in early land plant evolution. Ann. Bot. (London) 40:1239–1254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niklas, K. J. 1982. Chemical diversification and evolution of plants as inferred from paleobiochemical studies. Pp. 29–91. In: Nitecki, M. H., ed. Biochemical Aspects of Evolutionary Biology. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Niklas, K. J. and Phillips, T. L. 1976. Morphology of Protosalvinia from the Upper Devonian of Ohio and Kentucky. Amer. J. Bot. 63:9–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niklas, K. J. and Pratt, L. 1980. Evidence for lignin-like constituents in early Silurian (Llandoverian) plant fossils. Science 209:396–397.Google Scholar
Niklas, K. J., Tiffney, B. H., and Knoll, A. H. 1980. Apparent changes in the diversity of land plants. Pp. 1–89. In: Hecht, M. K., Steere, W. C., and Wallace, B., eds. Evolutionary Biology. Vol. 12. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Parihar, N. S. 1962. Bryophyta. 4th ed.Central Book Depot, Allahabad.Google Scholar
Park, R. and Epstein, S. 1960. Carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 21:110–126.Google Scholar
Parker, B. C. 1971a. The internal structure of Macrocystis. Pp. 99–121. In: North, W. J., ed. The Biology of Giant Kelp Beds. Beihefte z. Nova Hedw.32.Google Scholar
Parker, B. C. 1971b. Studies of translocation in Macrocystis. Pp. 191–195. In: North, W. J., ed. The Biology of Giant Kelp Beds. Beihefte z. Nova Hedw.32.Google Scholar
Pratt, L. M., Phillips, T. L., and Dennison, J. M. 1978. Evidence of non-vascular land plants from the early Silurian (Llandoverian) at Virginia. U.S.A. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 25:121–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raven, J. A. 1977. The evolution of vascular land plants in relation to supracellular transport processes. Adv. Bot. Res. 5:153–219.Google Scholar
Schmitz, K. and Srivastava, L. M. 1974. Fine structure and development of sieve tubes in Laminaria groendandica Rosenv. Cytobiologie 10:66–87.Google Scholar
Schmitz, K. and Srivastava, L. M. 1975. On the fine structure of sieve tubes and the physiology of assimilate transport in Alaria marginata. Can. J. Bot. 53:861–876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schopf, J. M. 1978. Foerstia and recent interpretations of early, vascular land plants. Lethaia 11:139–143.Google Scholar
Sieburth, J. McN. and Jensen, A. 1969. Studies on algal substances in the sea. II. The formation of Gelbstoff (humic material) by phaeophyte exadates. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 3:275–289.Google Scholar
Smith, G. M. 1955. Cryptogamic Botany. 2 vols. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Snedecor, G. W. and Cochran, W. G. 1980. Statistical Methods. 7th ed.Iowa State Univ. Press, Ames.Google Scholar
Stebbins, G. C. and Hill, G. J. C. 1980. Did multicellular plants invade the land? Amer. Nat. 115:342–353.Google Scholar
Strother, P. K. and Traverse, A. 1979. Plant microfossils from Llandoverian and Wenlockian rocks of Pennsylvania. Palynology 3:1–21.Google Scholar
Taylor, T. N. 1982. The origin of land plants: a paleobotanical perspective. Taxon 31:155–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, E. V. 1971. The Structure and Life of Bryophytes. 3d ed.Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Yentsch, C. S. and Reichert, C. A. 1962. The interrelationship between water-soluble yellow substances and chloroplastic pigments in marine algae. Bot. Mar. 3:65–74.Google Scholar
Ziegler, H. and Ruck, J. 1967. Untersuchungen über die Fein-Struktur des Phloems. III. Die “Trumkpetenzellen” von Laminaria-Arten. Planta 73:62–73.Google Scholar