VIII. Schizopodium Davidi gen. et sp. nov. — a new type of stem from devonian rocks of Australia

Abstract

The block of chert containing the fossil plants described in this paper was collected by the late R. L. Jack, when he was the Government Geologist of Queensland, Australia. The block was lent about twenty years ago to Prof. Sir Edgeworth David who was then searching for Radiolaria. Some sections were cut from the block, which seemed to be promising material; but as no Radiolarians were found the material was put away. Recently Sir Edgeworth David realised the nature and importance of the plant remains in it and the whole material was sent by the Queensland Geological Survey to Prof. Seward for examination. Prof. Seward was, at that time, fully occupied with University duties and generously entrusted the work to me. The specimen is stated to be from the Burdekin beds, Burdekin basin, Queensland, and therefore of Middle Devonian age. There is no reason to doubt that it came from these beds ; but there are younger rocks in the neighbourhood, from which it might, possibly, have been collected. A fairly rich fauna of Middle Devonian affinity is known from the Burdekin series (Jack and Etheridge, 1892). The age of these beds has been long accepted as approximately Middle Devonian, and in the more recent work on Queensland Geology (Bryan, 1925), where the full literature is cited, their approximately Middle Devonian age is not questioned. The exact position of the plantbearing chert in the series is however unknown, so that its age must be regarded as probably, though not certainly, Middle Devonian.