Biota - Lifeforms

Terrestrial fungi


The first fully terrestrial organisms preserved in the fossil record were fungi. The oldest, Tortotubus protuberans, which was discovered in early Silurian-age rocks of New York state, Scotland, and Gotland in Sweden.

Marine

The Pentamerus assemblage is an early Silurian assemblage dominated by large shelled brachiopods (lampshells) of the species Pentamerus oblongus. These pentamerid communities are known to be found in sunny waters because they coexist with calcareous, hardy green algae.

In areas of carbonate deposition, such as the Laurentian and Siberian platforms, it is common for continuous coral-stromatoporoid, Pentamerus, and stricklandia communities to form.


Typical Silurian fishes were found to be widely distributed in a broad band of marine environments (carbonates and clastic material) between 40°N and 40°S of paleo-equatorial latitude. They are known from individual scale fossils and rare body forms. They also include a wide variety of jawless fishes.

Vascular land plants

Throughout most of the Silurian period there was terrestrial colonization by vascular plants, but their activity was clearly limited to coastal lowlands, and the rest of the land was virtually barren. These plants are small, with spore sacs at the ends of smooth, simply branched stems. All photosynthesis occurred in the leafless stems.