Logo image
Terrestrialization in the Late Devonian; a palaeoecological overview of the Red Hill site, Pennsylvania, USA
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Terrestrialization in the Late Devonian; a palaeoecological overview of the Red Hill site, Pennsylvania, USA

Walter L. Cressler, Edward B. Daeschler, Rudy Slingerland and Daniel A. Peterson
Geological Society special publication, v 339(1)
2010

Abstract

aquatic environment assemblages avulsion biogeography Catskill Formation Chordata Clinton County Pennsylvania depositional environment Devonian ecosystems Famennian floodplains fluvial environment fluvial features forests fossil localities General paleontology habitat Invertebrata Lycopsida models paleoecology Paleozoic Pennsylvania Plantae Pteridophyta Red Hill sedimentation shallow-water environment Spermatophyta Stratigraphy taphonomy terrestrial environment terrestrialization United States Upper Devonian Vertebrata wetlands
Alluvial floodplains were a critical setting during the Late Devonian for the evolution of terrestriality among plants, invertebrate and vertebrates. The Red Hill site in Pennsylvania, US, provides a range of information about the physical and biotic setting of a floodplain ecosystem along the southern margin of the Euramerican landmass during the late Famennian age. An avulsion model for floodplain sedimentation is favoured in which a variety of inter-channel depositional settings formed a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial habitats. The Red Hill flora demonstrates ecological partitioning of the floodplain landscape at a high taxonomic level. In addition to progymnosperm forests, lycopsid wetlands and zygopterid fern glades, the flora includes patches of early spermatophytes occupying sites disturbed by fires. The Red Hill fauna illustrates the development of a diverse penecontemporaneous community including terrestrial invertebrates and a wide range of vertebrates that were living within aquatic habitats. Among the vertebrates are several limbed tetrapodomorphs that inhabited the burgeoning shallow water habitats on the floodplain.

Metrics

14 Record Views
31 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#15 Life on Land
#14 Life Below Water
#13 Climate Action

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Geology
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Logo image