Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

The Cooksonia Flora

Deposits containing this flora, from the Silurian-Devonian, have been found at Mudgee, and in deposits of the Mount Daubeny Group, near Broken Hill, New South Wales. The fossils occur as aggregations of fragmental carbonaceous detritus, in some cases almost microscopic. While not spectacular specimens, these fossils have an important position in the evolution of terrestrial plants. The existence of the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea was confirmed to have existed when the worldwide distribution of these plants was found in Late Silurian deposits.

In the flora that followed the Cooksonia Flora, Rhynophytes and Zosterophylls also had a worldwide distribution. They have been found in Australia, Canada, the US, and many other parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Sources & Further reading

1. Maey E. White, The Greening of Gondwana, the 400 Million Year story of Australian Plants, Reed, 1994

Floras of Ancient Australia