366 New York State Museum 



ing vertebrates, are known (through footprints) from the 

 Upper Devonian. 



For the first time we may speak of the flora of a 

 period, though not perhaps until Upper Devonian is the 

 term strictly applicable. The vegetation of the Devonian 

 was characteristic. There is evidence that the land was 

 clothed with a vegetation which in the latter part of 

 the period was quite varied. Here we have the oldest 

 forests known and in them green fernlike plants, tree 

 ferns, seed ferns, rushes, lycopods or giant club mosses, 

 and primitive evergreens or gymnosperms with woody 

 trunks. The seed ferns and club mosses have been esti- 

 mated to have reached heights of 25 to 40 feet. The 

 fernlike forms are so characteristic of the Devonian 

 flora, and one of the forms (Archaeopteris) so common 

 that the flora has been called the Archaeopteris flora 

 and the time the Age of Archaeopteris. This flora had 

 a wide distribution through eastern North America, ex- 

 tending into the Arctic regions, Spitzbergen and north- 

 western Europe. 



Climate. All evidence, as in previous times, points 

 to a uniformly warm though semiarid climate. The wide 

 distribution of the flora is evidence of equable climates. 

 The trees grew in wet places in valleys and in swampy 

 areas and were without rings of growth, indicating an 

 absence of seasonal changes. The profusion of corals 

 and wide distribution of coral reefs is another proof of 

 a warm climate. The red deposits of the Upper Devonian 

 are indicative of a more or less semiarid condition; 

 deserts existed in some places, just as in others there 

 were extensive swamps. 



