TAPHONOMY OF CARBONIFEROUS PLANTS: SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA

Understanding the modes of preservation of fossilized organisms is important when attempting to reconstruct past environments and general taphonomic conditions. In particular, plant fossils can provide a great deal of information on such environments. However, these fossils are often neglected in taphonomic studies so their preservational processes is not as well known as those of many animals. To better understand the taphonomy of ancient plants we conducted a taphonomic study of common and well-studied Carboniferous plants from southwest Virginia, USA. The flora examined included specimens of Sigillaria, Lepidodendron, Rhodia, and Calamites. Both traditional paleontological and newer micro-analytical investigate methods (including SEM and EDS) were used). Significant variation was found among the specimens studied, both physical (flat and poorly preserved to trunks found preserved in three dimensions) and chemically (imprints to pyritized to original carbon material). This diversity in taphonomic quality/mode was then plotted along an axis and into grades, which were then used to further analyze the patterns of preservation. Through an analysis of of physical and chemical preservation in these samples we can better understand the means of such preservation.