Journal
NEW PHYTOLOGIST
Volume 185, Issue 1, Pages 217-225Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03056.x
Keywords
Early Devonian; Lochkovian; rooting system; root to shoot ratio; Zosterophyllum
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [40672001, 40802003, 40830211]
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P> The enhanced chemical weathering by rooted vascular plants during the Silurian-Devonian period played a crucial role in altering global biogeochemical cycles and atmospheric environments; however, the documentation of early root morphology and physiology is scarce because the existing fossils are mostly incomplete. Here, we report an entire, uprooted specimen of a new Zosterophyllum Penhallow, named as Z. shengfengense, from the Early Devonian Xitun Formation (Lochkovian, c. 413 Myr old) of Yunnan, south China. This plant has the most ancient known record of a rooting system. The plant consists of aerial axes of 98 mm in height, showing a tufted habit, and a rhizome bearing a fibrous-like rooting system, c. 20 mm in length. The rhizome shows masses of branchings, which produce upwardly directed aerial axes and downwardly directed root-like axes. The completeness of Z. shengfengense made it possible to estimate the biomass allocation and root : shoot ratio. The root : shoot ratio of this early plant is estimated at a mean value of 0.028, and the root-like axes constitute only c. 3% of the total biomass. Zosterophyllum shengfengense was probably a semi-aquatic plant with efficient water use or a strong uptake capacity of the root-like axes.
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