A PRIDOLIAN (OR EARLIER) SILURIAN TERRESTRIAL PLANT COMMUNITY IN THE BERTIE GROUP LAGERSTATTE OF EASTERN NEW YORK

Examination of plant fossils collected in the Bertie Group at the Lang quarry in Herkimer County, New York is revealing a low frequency but diverse assemblage of terrestrial plants. The specimens found so far include liverworts, lycopod- like specimens, fertile cooksonias, zosterophyllum grades and a putative “protoligniphyte”. Specimens are well preserved morphologically but structural details are scarce. Other terrestrial fossils recovered include two types of Prototaxites-like taxa and one species of scorpion that may have lived sub-aerially and a scorpion relative that may be land adaptated.

The quarry has produced many eurypterids including giants over seven feet long, algae, gastropods and cephalopods as well as rare barnacles, a synxiphosurine, one phyllocarid, a hydrozoan, a hydra like fossil, a brachiopod, a single tabulate coral, several primitive fish and other material. Most of these are undescribed.

The plant fossils indicate a thriving and diverse terrestrial ecosystem at a very early time that may require a reappraisal of the environment(s) represented in the Bertie Group.