Charcoal in the Early Devonian: A wildfire-derived Konservat-Lagerstatte

Anatomically preserved Earliest Devonian plant mesofossils from a stream section in the Welsh Borderland are quantitatively demonstrated to be charcoal, and are the pyrolysis products of ancient wildfires. These wildfire events preserved a diversity of plants and a level of anatomical detail that is unrivalled by other Lochkovian localities, and as a result have provided important insights into the early evolution of land plants. This diverse assemblage, which displays exceptional preservation of volatile non-mineralised tissues, is an example of instantaneous fossilization and the locality is proposed as a Konservat-Lagerstatte. It is the first record of a wildfire-derived Lagerstatte and as such, expands the diversity of recognized conservation traps. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.