Devonian miospores of North America

Abstract

Abstract The stratigraphic ranges of seventy‐four previously described, readily identifiable species of Devonian miospores that occur in more than one sedimentary basin, are plotted graphically using symbols to distinguish between relatively well dated and less precisely dated records. Gedinnian, Siegenian, Eifelian, and Famennian miospores have been little studied in North America. Four North American sections for which miospores have been illustrated and/or described are in the Famennian and “Strunian”; of Ohio, the Gedinnian to Givetian of northern Ontario, the lower Emsian to middle Eifelian of Gaspé, and the Siegenian to lower Famennian of the Queen Elizabeth Islands. Until more is known about the distribution of miospores in reliably dated continuous sections, and the ecological and sedimentological factors that control their distribution, attempts to establish a refined zonation based on miospores would be premature, except possibly for the Emsian‐lower Eifelian and the uppermost Famennian‐"Strunian”;.