ROTHWELL, G W

SCOTT, A C

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Ecology of the Lower Carboniferous Plant Remains from Oxroad Bay, East Lothian, Scotland

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June, 1985] 899 PALEOBOTANICAL SECTION 292 RISCHi3IEUER, ECHAEL o.*, 3ONT Xi. STIDD. Biology Depment, Uversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, SIC 27514, and Oepartment of Biological Sciences, Western Illinois University, Macomb, Il 61455.- Anatomically and morphologicallJr preserved Linopteris obliq^ua 23unbury from the Herrin No. 6 Coal of Southern t . . . 11 nols. The first reported occurzence of permi neralized foliage referable to the species Linopteris obliqua Bunbury is described frozl Middle Pennsylvanian coal balls from the Herrin lso. 6 Coal of Southern Illinois. Ifilorphological details of the foliage were revealed by splittir3g coal balls along natural bedding plames, and fther wegagng an;y obscuring matrix. This technique and paradermal sectioning allowed cowparative identification, with conXprest3ed Linopteris foliage. The chazacteristic anast omosing Grein network and overall dimensions of the f oliage were the most useful characters for use in identification. The pinnules range from 12-15 mm long x 5-7 mm wide, are mostly ovate in shape, with a truncate-cordate base. Sieconduy veins anest omose t o give 4-6 sided meshes which vaq,r in length t o width proportlons. t distinct epidermal layer is sometimes unuerlain by all indistinct (possibly hypodermal) layer. ghe mesophyll is composed of a palisade and spongy layer . lviidribs of the pinnules are vasculari zed by a sLngle bundle of 12-15 spiral-scalariform tracheids shaped as an adaxially curved arc. Secondary veins of the lsmina are composed of 3-5 spiral-scalariform tracheids surrounded by a prominent bundle sheath. Bundle sheath extension cells have sclerified walls, Q etend from the lower to upper epidermis. Cuticles taken from the abaxial surface reveal a dense concentration of stomata and hair bases. 293 ROTHWELL, GAR W.* andlENDREW C. SCOTT. Department of Botany, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, and Department of Geology, Chelsea College, University of London, London SWl0 OUA. - Ecology of the Lower Carboniferous plant remains from Oxroad Bay, East Lothian, Scotland. Extensive collecting of late Tournaisian plant remains at Oxroad Bay has revealed four different sources of permineralized material, and separate beds that contain compressed specimens. The most abundant remains are permineralized in green basaltic ashes that crop out at the base of a cliff and on the adjacent shore. The cliff section contains a large channel structure with several unconformities that suggest oversteepening during deposition. The sediments show a wide range of grain sizes and bedding structures, including evidence of reverse grading, slumping and mass flow. The ashes probably originated from a tuff-ring or maar volcano and may include base-surge sediments. Incorporated plants are interpreted as gymnospermous colonizers of ash deposits, and some fragments are large enough to permit the reconstruction of whole plants. Remains under investigation include three new species of fertile organs. Two putative lycophyte stems, the only pteridophyte remains, do not represent Paurodendron as previously suspected. Some taxa described from Oxroad Bay (including Oxroadia) come from other horizons and presumably represent different environments of growth and deposition. 294 ROY, BARBARA . and LAWRENCE t MATTEN. * Department of Botany, Southern Illinois llniversity, Carbondale, IL 69901, - Notes on Lycopofenia calIicyrta frDm the New Albany Shale. Lycopt)eria caIZicyota Read wa5 described in 1936 from the Devonian-Mississippian transition of Kentucky. fit that time, Read placed the genus in the Lycopsida. Since then, doubt has been cast on the systematic position of Lycopogenia primarily because of the morphology of the leaf traces. The type specimen was re-e.eamined for evidence to support ta.<onomic assiQnment to the Lycopsida or another aroup of plants New observations indicate that the specimen is more lycopodiaceous than previously inferred. Each of the helicailv arranQed leaf traces has, ir, the cortex, a single arc of 

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Ecology of the Lower Carboniferous Plant Remains from Oxroad Bay, East Lothian, Scotland

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