Miaolingian Epoch (Series 3)

What happened during this time?

• Possible evidence for land-based spores during the Middle Cambrian, although the affinities of these spores are unknown (Taylor & Strother, 2008, 2009; Strother, 2016)

  • There may be land plants, or possibly algae, or even transitional embryophyte-charophyte organisms

  • Indirect evidence of Cambrian land plants also comes from carbon isotopic composition of carbonaceous debris and sediments (Tomescu & Rothwell, 2006; Tomescu et al., 2009) and chemical and textural profile differentiation of clayey Cambrian paleosols (Retallack, 2008, 2009, 2015).

Parafunaria sinensis

• • An alleged moss-like fossil from China dating to this period (Yang et al., 2004)

  • This fossil is interpreted as having whorled leaves and other features similar to the living moss Funaria hygrometrica

  • This fossil is 20-30 million years earlier than the expected origin of bryophytes as a whole

  • Most researchers assume the earliest bryophytes were thalloid, retaining some of those ancestral algal morphologies. 

  • This fossil appears quite sophisticated, and leaf-like organs have already evolved.

  • Substantial skepticism exists about this fossil representing an authentic Middle Cambrian moss