Session 5 - Origin and evolution of life: evidence from ancient mineral: The Rhynie Chert early land plants: palaeo-ecophysiological and taphonomic analogues

Alan Channing
Applied Earth Science:IMM Transactions section B, 2003 112:170-178

Abstract:
Current interpretation of the early evolution of land plants is based on fossil plants preserved in exquisite detail within siliceous sinter deposited by the activity of terrestrial hot springs at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland during the Lower Devonian (e.g. Powell el al.³. The Rhynie deposit's association with andesitic lavas and tuffs, Au-As mineralisation, quartz-adularia-sericite alteration assemblage and sinter deposits suggest that the cherts are the surface expression of a low-sulphidation, alkali-chloride hydrothermal system dominated by meteoric waters (e.g. Rice and Trewin⁸)

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