Series 2
Furongian is an epoch that occurs before Series 3, and before the Terreneuvian. Early spores discovered from this time may be from the charophyte-embryophyte lineage.
Geologic Age
521–509 Ma
Subdivisions
Stage 4: 514–509 Ma
Stage 3: 521–514 Ma
Eon / Era / Period / Epoch
What happened during this time?
Palynomorphs (spores) with complex resistant walls recovered from the Bright Angel Shale of Arizona (Cambrian Stage 3)
At least three distinct types of primary walls, are recognized with the TEM
unilaminate wall with a smooth inner surface and a sculptured outer surface
wall of three unornamented laminae of very uniform thickness
thicker wall with multiple thin, lightly-staining layers embedded in a darker matrix. This third type of primary wall bears a strong resemblance to those of certain Lower Devonian hilate cryptospore monads from the Welsh Borderlands.
No extant algae produce spores with walls as thick or as complex, suggesting that these Cambrian palynomorphs were the desiccation-resistant spores of cryptogams belonging to the charophyte–embryophyte lineage.
Multilaminate spore walls, which are characteristic of some extant liverworts and Paleozoic cryptospores, may have evolved via the fusion of separate, multiple laminae.
This appears to be the primitive plant sporoderm type, but it may have evolved asynchronously with respect to the evolution of the embryophytic development of the sporophyte in land plants (Taylor & Strother 2008)
