A Middle Pennsylvanian (Bolsovian) peat-forming forest preserved in situ in volcanic ash of the Whetstone Horizon in the Radnice Basin, Czech Republic
2009
Abstract
The precursory mire of the Middle Pennsylvanian (Bolsovian) Lower Radnice Coal was buried in situ by volcanic ash, preserving the taxonomic composition, spatial distribution, vertical stratification, and synecology of this peat-forming ecosystem in extraordinary detail. Plant fossil remains represent the pre-eruption vegetation of the swamp, which resulted from accumulation of peat in a high-ash, planar (rheotrophic) mire situated in a narrow palaeovalley containing an active fluvial system.
Twenty-seven morphotaxa were identified, representing 20 whole-plant species with a wide variety of growth forms.