| Battery Point Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Early Emsian-Early Eifelian | |
 Sawdonia ornata fossil from the Battery Point Formation | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Unit of | Gaspé Sandstones |
| Underlies | Malbaie Formation |
| Overlies | York River Formation |
| Thickness | 2,300 m (7,550) ft |
| Location | |
| Region | Quebec |
| Country |  Canada |
The Battery Point Formation is a geologic formation in Quebec. It preserves fossils dating back to the early Emsian to early Eifelian the lower Devonian period. [1]
A part of the Gaspé Sandstones, [2] the Battery Point Formation is believed to have been deposited in a fluvial environment based on the presence of rootlets as well as the abundance of trough and planar-tabular cross bedding, and the lower part resembles modern braided systems more than meandering systems. [2] [3] It rests unconformably on the shallow marine sandstones of the York River Formation (the basal unit of the Gaspé Sandstones and making the Battery Point Formation the first continental unit of the sequence [2] ), transitioning upwards into the Malbaie Formation, and is 2,300 meters (7,550 feet) thick. [4]
Limited intervals in the lower part of the formation contain remains of a few brachiopods and bivalves, though marine fauna is not known from other parts of the formation. [1] Plant and freshwater fish fossils are also known. [2]
| Acanthodians | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
| Ankylacanthus | A. incurvus | Cap-aux-Os locality, Gaspé Peninsula. [5] | Fin spines. [5] | A possible gyracanthid, formerly known as Gyracanthus incurvus. [5] | |
| Chondrichthyans | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
| Doliodus | D. latispinosus | Cap-aux-Os Member, north side of Gaspé Bay. [6] | Fin spines. [6] | Also known from the Campbellton and York River formations. [6] | |
| Plants | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
| Adelocladoxis | A. praecox | [7] | A cladoxylopsid [7] | ||
| Eddianna | E. gaspiana | In the vicinity of Douglastown. [8] | A rhyniopsid [8] | ||
| Franhueberia | F. gerriennei | South shore of Gaspé Bay, in the vicinity of Douglastown, Quebec. [9] | A fossil preserved anatomically by cellular permineralization. [9] | A euphyllophyte. [9] | |
| Renalia | R. hueberi | [10] | A vascular plant. [10] |  | |
| Sawdonia | S. ornata | North shore of Gaspé Bay, which is part of the Cap-aux-Os Member. [11] | A zosterophyll. [11] |  | |
| Wilhowia | W. phocarum | North Shore of Gaspé Bay, Quebec, Canada. [12] | Partially permineralized adpressions of remains. [12] | A basal euphyllophyte. [12] | |
| Fungi | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Presence | Material | Notes | Images |
| Glomites | G. oqoti | In the vicinity of Douglastown, south shore of Gaspé Bay (Quebec, Canada). [13] | Glomoid spores in trimerophyte axes. [13] | ||
Wattieza was a genus of prehistoric trees that existed in the mid-Devonian that belong to the cladoxylopsids, close relatives of the modern ferns and horsetails. The 2005 discovery in Schoharie County, New York, of fossils from the Middle Devonian about 385 million years ago united the crown of Wattieza to a root and trunk known since 1870. The fossilized grove of "Gilboa stumps" discovered at Gilboa, New York, were described as Eospermatopteris, though the complete plant remained unknown. These fossils have been described as the earliest known trees, standing 8 m (26 ft) or more tall, resembling the unrelated modern tree fern.
Tortilicaulis is a moss-like plant known from fossils recovered from southern Britain, spanning the Silurian-Devonian boundary. Originally recovered from the Downtonian of the Welsh borderlands, Tortilicaulis has since been recovered in the famous Ludlow Lane locality.
Psilophyton is a genus of extinct vascular plants. Described in 1859, it was one of the first fossil plants to be found which was of Devonian age. Specimens have been found in northern Maine, USA; Gaspé Bay, Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada; the Czech Republic; and Yunnan, China. Plants lacked leaves or true roots; spore-forming organs or sporangia were borne on the ends of branched clusters. It is significantly more complex than some other plants of comparable age and is thought to be part of the group from within which the modern ferns and seed plants evolved.
Sawdonia is an extinct genus of early vascular plants, known from the Upper Silurian to the Lower Carboniferous. Sawdonia is best recognized by the large number of spikes (enations) covering the plant. These are vascular plants that do not have vascular systems in their enations. The first species of this genus was described in 1859 by Sir J. William Dawson and, was originally attributed to the genus Psilophyton. He named this plant Psilophyton princeps. In 1971 Francis Hueber proposed a new genus for this species due to its "Divergent technical characters from the generic description for Psilophyton." The holotype used for description is Dawson Collection Number 48, pro parte, Museum Specimen Number 3243. Sir J. William Dawson Collection, Peter Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Pertica is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early to Middle Devonian. It has been placed in the "trimerophytes", a strongly paraphyletic group of early members of the lineage leading to modern ferns and seed plants.
Hostinella is a form genus, used for bare dichotomously branching stems (axes) which have not been found in association with spore-forming organs or sporangia and so cannot be assigned to a more precise genus or species. Specimens assigned to this genus have been found in Bathurst Island, Canada, in the Bertie Formation of Upper Silurian age, where the stems are approximately 1.2 mm in diameter; and in Lower Devonian Senni beds where the axes have a straited external appearance and contain xylem with tracheids.
Renalia is a genus of extinct vascular plants from the Early Devonian. It was first described in 1976 from compressed fossils in the Battery Point Formation. It is difficult to reconstruct the original form of the complete plant, but it appears to have consisted of leafless branching stems whose side branches had sporangia at their tips. It is regarded as an early relative of the lycophytes.
Hedeia is a genus of early land plants of uncertain affinity. It comprises erect axes terminating in corymbose clusters of erect sporangia.
Dutoitia is a genus of Devonian rhyniophyte, named after the renowned South African geologist Alex du Toit. It is one of the earliest plants from Gondwana to colonize land. Its fossils were preserved in fine mudstones of the 400-million-year-old Bokkeveld and Witteberg Groups of South Africa. This erect, gracile plant is less than 10 cm high and very simple in structure. Its diminutive stems, which are devoid of leaflike appendages, branch in two and end in club- or cup-shaped sporangia, occasionally containing its reproductive spores. Stomata are present in the cuticle of their stems for gas exchange, and primitive cells inside the stems transported water from the roots to the aerial parts of the plant. Three species are recognized, D. pulchra Hoeg 1930, D. alfreda Plumstead 1967 and D. maraisia Plumstead 1967.
Eogaspesiea was a genus of Early Devonian rhyniophyte with a tangled mess of branching axes that reached 10 cm in length. These probably emanated from a rhizome. Its (probably) alete spores had thin walls.
Odonax was a genus of Early Devonian zosterophyll with branching axes. It bore kidney-shaped sporangia and spiny branches.
Foozia was a genus of vascular Emsian land plant with a main axis and a number of branches that sub-divide at most once. Some of these bear oval to semicircular sporangia containing Dibolisporites echinaceus, whereas the sterile branches may represent an early foray into leaf-formation. The only known fossils herald from Belgium. It is currently unclassified.
The Allenby formation is a sedimentary rock formation in British Columbia which was deposited during the Ypresian stage of the Early Eocene. It consists of conglomerates, sandstones with interbedded shales and coal. The shales contain an abundance of insect, fish and plant fossils known from 1877 and onward, while the Princeton Chert was first indented in the 1950's and is known from anatomically preserved plants.
The Price Formation is a geologic formation in Virginia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.
The Escuminac Formation is a geologic formation in Quebec. It preserves fossils dating back to the Frasnian, in the Devonian period.
The York River Formation is a geologic formation in Quebec. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.
The Campbellton Formation is a geologic formation in New Brunswick. It preserves fossils dating back to the latest Pragian and Emsian of the Devonian period.
Patricia Gabbey Gensel is an American botanist and paleobotanist.
Armoricaphyton is an extinct monospecific genus of vascular land plants described from Early Devonian outcrops of the Chalonnes Formation in western France. The plant consists of small, leafless, longitudinally-ribbed axes that branch pseudomonopodially. Pairs of fusiform-shaped, twisted sporangia preserved as adpressions were found in association with the axes and may belong to this species. Permineralized specimens reveal the oldest documented wood or secondary xylem of any known fossil plant. The water-conducting tissues or tracheids consisted of extinct P-type cell walls. This type of cell wall consisted of scalariform bordered pits and perforated sheets that covered the openings (apertures) of the pits. A. chateaupannense is anatomically similar in some respects to other members of the Euphyllophytina such as Psilophyton and Franhueberia. Franhueberia gerriennei is also one of the earliest land plants described from the Early Devonian that was known to have wood. Given the differences between Armoricaphyton and these other genera and a lack of a complete understanding of the whole plant, Armoricaphyton is currently classified as Euphyllophytina incertae sedis.
Franhueberia is an extinct monospecific genus of vascular land plants described from Early Devonian outcrops of the Battery Point Formation along the south shore of Gaspé Bay, Quebec, Canada.
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