Sur la paléoflore post-carbonifère de la bordure est du Bassin de Mourzouk (Libye)

Until recently the age of the continental sediments overlaying marine strata of Carboniferous age at the Murzuk Basin was unknown and long distance correlation was not possible because of lack of correlation criteria. The flora now described allows, for the first time, to identify the age of parts of this strata. Together with new sedimentological criteria of subdivision worked out by R.Glaeser, H.Kallenbach and I.Zöller which will be published later, the paleobotanical investigations contribute towards a final subdivision of these continental sediments. The terms “Nubian Series”, and “Posttassilien” will be abandoned, because they are useless within the area concerned. The creation of correlatable stratigraphical data is an important prerequisite for groundwater and mineral exploration within the large areas covered by these strata. Along the eastern Murzuk Basin these sediments containFilicophytae, Pteridophyllae,Pteridospermaphytae, Cycadophytae andConiferophytae. At Jebel Ben Ghnema the upper part of the lower third of the continental sediments contains plants which are known from triassic strata in Europe, India, North America, South America, South Africa, and Asia. At Jebel Ben Ghnema the top of the strata contains Jurassic plants known from Europe, North America, and Asia. Almost 300 kilometres further South at Jebel Ati near the top of these continental sediments plants of Jurassic age were found, too. It seems that the development of this flora has taken place under a generally warm and dry climate with wet seasons. From the paleophytographical point of view the flora described is of great interest, because it contains coexisting species of the Northern and Southern hemisphere. The Jurassic flora is comparable to that known from adjacent basins in Algeria and Egypt, and to flora known from Virginia.