PLANT FOSSIL DISTRIBUTIONS IN SOME AUSTRALIAN PERMIAN NONMARINE SEDIMENTS

Plant remains occur in all post-Devonian, lowland, terrestrial depositional systems, with distinctive assemblages characterizing discrete environments. Glossopterid gymnosperms dominate most Australian Permian coal-bearing sediments. Herbaceous pteridophytes, sphenophytes, and lycophytes are best represented in lower deltaic lacustrine and paludal deposits. Non-glossopterid gymnosperms mostly colonized drier floodplain and upland environments and are poorly represented in Australian Permian sequences. Fresh- and brackish-water algae are abundantly preserved in paludal and lacustrine facies in both alluvial and delta plain environments. Seasonal productivity and taphonomic factors undoubtedly influenced the composition of interseam compression/impression floras but integration of information from these assemblages with that from permineralized peats, in-situ coalified plants, and coal maceral and palynological analyses can assist in the interpretation of Australian Permian coal-forming environments and the structure of plant communities.