Fossil plants from the K'uanshanch'ang coal series of North-Eastern Yunnan, China

Abstract

A collection of 34 species of plants from K'uangshanch'ang of the K'uangshanch'ang Coal Series of Huiche (formerly Tungchuan) district, north-eastern Yunnan, China, has been studied. It is a flora represented by Equisetales, Sphenophyllales, Pteridospermae (or Filicales), Cordaitales, and other groups. The majority of the fossils are fronds of Sphenopteris and Pecopteris and a large number of seeds. Nine species are identical with or closely comparable to those from the Lower Shillhotze Series of central Shansi (which, according to Professor Halle, is of early Permian age); five are identical with or closely comparable to those from the Upper Shihhotze Series of the same province; seven are related to the Late Carboniferous flora of Sumatra; and four either identical or related to the Permian flora of Korea. This shows that the plants most probably belong to the earliest Permian age. Five species are described as new: Pecopteris huichensis, P. Sahnii, P. yunnanensis, Tobleria minor and Cornucarpus huichensis. The last-named species has a seed in organic connection with a sphenopteroid pinnule. Both geographically and in its palaeobotanical composition the Yunnan flora serves as a link between the Gigantopteris flora of China and Korea on the one side and that of Sumatra on the other. It suggests that the geological age of the K'uangshanch'ang Coal Series is earliest Permian. The specimens do not contain even a single species in common with the Indian Gondwana flora, a fact suggesting that there was no land bridge between Cathaysia and Gondwanaland in the early Permian age.