Paleoenvironments of Late Devonian tetrapods in China

Abstract

The major evolutionary transition from fish to amphibian included Late Devonian tetrapods that were neither fish nor amphibian. They had thick necks and small limbs with many digits on elongate flexuous bodies more suitable for water than land. Habitats of Devonian tetrapods are of interest in assessing selective pressures on their later evolution for land within three proposed habitats: 1, tidal flats, 2, desert ponds, and 3, woodland streams. Here we assess paleoenvironments of the Late Devonian tetrapod Sinostega from paleosols in Shixiagou Canyon near Zhongning, Ningxia, China. Fossil tetrapods, fish, molluscs, and plants of the Zhongning Formation are associated with different kinds of paleosols, representing early successional vegetation, seasonal wetlands, desert shrublands, and riparian woodlands, and paleoclimates ranging from semiarid moderately seasonal to monsoonal subhumid. The tetrapod Sinostega was found in a paleochannel of a meandering stream below a deep-calcic paleosol supporting well drained progymnosperm woodland in a monsoonal subhumid paleoclimate. This habitat is similar to that of the tetrapods Densignathus, Hynerpeton, and an indeterminate watcheeriid from Pennsylvania, USA. Chinese and Pennsylvanian Late Devonian tetrapods lived in productive woodland streams, choked with woody debris as a refuge from large predators. Habitats of other Devonian tetrapods have yet to be assessed from studies of associated paleosols as evidence for their ancient climate and vegetation.