Roadian Age

What happened during this time?

• Glossopteris dominates in Gondwanaland; ginkgophytes and Cordaitales are also success groups, with ferns adapting to the understory and horsetails along rivers and other wetlands

• Cycads and voltzialean conifers, which appear in the Carboniferous, diversify in the expanding desert ecosystems on Pangaea during this time

  • Many of these gymnosperms appear in the Late Carboniferous, but are beginning to dominate in this new xeric landscape

• The Voltizian conifer, Manifera talaris, which had auto-rotating seeds similar to modern conifers (Stevenson et al. 2015)

  • Plant displayed three morpho-types on the same plant: Seeds with single wing (similar to modern conifers); 2 symmetrical wings; 2 wings of unequal sizes

  • Simulated models show that seeds with a single wing initiated auto-rotation much more easily than seeds with two wings. Many double-winged seeds plummeted to ground.

  • Research also showed that single-winged seeds descended more slowly than double-winged seeds

• Gigantopterids are found in Chinese fossil sites in environments that were warm, cool, and cold temperate environments

• In cool temperate environments Lycopsids, Equisetophytes, Marattioid, and Zygopterid ferns