DEVONIAN PLANTS FROM SOUTHERN QUEBEC AND NORTHERN NEW-HAMPSHIRE AND THE AGE OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY TROUGH

The gray metasedimentary rocks of the Connecticut Valley trough extend from the east end of the Gaspe Peninsula southwest and south across Quebec and western New England. Following a review of the earlier "fossil' finds, we herein present descriptions of Early Devonian fossil plants found in rocks of the upper part of the stratigraphic section composing the Connecticut Valley trough. We also present U-Pb data from analyses of zircons from a dike near Springfield, Vt., indicating a Silurian age for some rocks of the trough. Four groups of plants have been recovered from eleven sites: Nematophytales; Zosterophyllophytina; Lycophytina; and Trimerophytina. The presence of plant fossils in northern New Hampshire and southern Quebec supports a late Early Devonian (Emsian) age for the Gile Mountain Formation and its equivalent, the Compton Formation; the equivocal paleontological data in Vermont and the radiometric data indicate a Silurian age for the Waits River Formation. -from Authors