Glossopteris flora

One of the most spectacular discoveries of the 1963-64 field season was made by the Minnesota party under direction of Campbell Craddock (9) in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. They submitted a sample of high rank coal accompanied by characteristic elements of the Glossopteris flora at a locality about 600 or 700 miles north of the nearest similar occurrences in the Transantarctic Mountains, intermediate in position between them and the Falkland Islands, where a similar flora (but no coal) has been reported from the work of early Swedish Expeditions. 

Cridland AA (1963) A Glossopteris flora from the Ohio Range, Antarctica. Amer J Botany 50 186-195 CroweU JC (1999) Pre-Mesozoic ice ages Their bearing on understanding the climate system. Geol Soc Amer, Memoir 192. Boulder, CO, pp 1-106... 

Plumstead EP (1973) The late Palaeozoic Glossopteris flora. In Hallam A (ed) Atlas of palaeobiogeography. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp 187-206 Potter N (1969) Natural resource potentials of the Antarctic. 

The flora that has been preserved in the Beacon Supergroup of the Transantarctic Mountains and in Australia, South Africa, India, and South America contain leaves of Glossopteris, Gangamopteris, and Dicroidium, as well as gymnospermous trees (Meyer-Berthaud and Taylor 1989), cycads, ferns, and palyno-morphs (pollen, spores, and acritarchs). The fossilized remains of these plants occur primarily in the Buckley, Fremouw, and Falla formations. 

Seed-fern flora (glossopteris) flourishes all over Gondwanaland Seed-bearing plants flourish, with conifers and cycadophytes... 

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