Tournaisian Age

What happened during this time?

Biological

• Several groups begin to disappear from the landscape: cladoxylopsids, Stenokoleales, and archaeopterids, 

• Sanfordiacaulis densifolia, a single-stemmed, non-woody "tree" estimated to be 20 feet tall (Gastaldo et al., 2024)

  • It possessed more than 250 leaves around its trunk, with partially-preserved leaves extending 1.75 meters, and probably another meter in real life

  • Affinities for this plant are unknown

Geophysical

• Tropical Everwet and Summerwet

  • Dominated by arborescent lycopods, sphenophyllophytes, equisetophytes, and pteridosperms (Cleal and Thomas, 1991)

  • Clear increase in fossil charcoal in marine black shales during this time (Rimmer et al., 2015)

    • Burned plant material from ground fires was transported into watersheds

    • This is probably due to increased oxygen levels from the increased amount of plant life on land 

• Subtropical Desert

  • no fossil evidence

• Warm Temperate

  • non-arborescent lycopsids and equisetophytes

• Cool-cold temperate, arctic, and glacial

  • no fossil evidence