A first synecological study of the Rhynie chert biota - interactions between organisms and their environment

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hans Kerp
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2005 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 17055859

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

Although the Rhynie chert was discovered more than a century ago and the first monographic contribution appeared in 1917, this locality still continues to yield new data and information that contribute to unravel the oldest in situ preserved terrestrial ecosystem. The Rhynie chert presents a series of snapshots of a unique early terrestrial ecosystem that is frozen in time, showing a considerable amount of microscopic detail. Although – due to circumstances – some of our original goals could not fully be achieved, we hope that with this project we have contributed toward a better understanding of this ecosystem, especially the role of the too often ignored microbial components.

Publications

• (2012): Microfossils from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert with suggested affinities to the Peronosporomycetes, Journal of Paleontology 86, 358–367
  Krings, M., Taylor, T.N., Taylor, E.L., Hass, H., Kerp, H., Dotzler, N. & Harper, C.J.
  
• (2013): Reproductive organs and in situ spores of Asteroxylon mackiei Kidston & Lang, the most complex plant from the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert, International Journal of Plant Sciences 174: 293-308
  Kerp, H., Wellman, C.H., Krings, M., Kearney, P. & Hass, H.
  
• (2013): Zwergimyces vestitus (Kidston et W.H. Lang) nov. comb., a fungal reproductive unit enveloped in a hyphal mantle from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 190, 15–19
  Krings, M. & Taylor, T.N.
  
• (2014): First record of a fungal “sporocarp” from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert, Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments 94, 221–227
  Krings, M., Taylor, T.N., Taylor, E.L., Kerp, H. & Dotzler, N.
  
• (2015): A colony-forming microorganism with probable affinities to the Chroococcales (Cyanobacteria) from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 219, 147 – 156
  Taylor, T.N. & Krings, M.
  
• (2015): Deciphering interfungal relationships in the 410-million-yrold Rhynie chert: Sporocarp formation in glomeromycotan spores, Geobios 48, 449–458
  Krings, M., Taylor, T.N., Kerp, H. & Walker, C.
  
• (2016): An enigmatic fossil fungus from the 410 Ma Rhynie chert that resembles Macrochytrium (Chytridiomycota) and Blastocladiella (Blastocladiomycota), Mycologia 108, 303– 312
  Krings, M., Taylor, T.N. & Martin, H.
  
• (2016): Morphology and ontogenetic development of Zwergimyces vestitus, a fungal reproductive unit enveloped in a hyphal mantle from the Lower Devonian Rhynie chert, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 228, 47–56
  Krings, M., Taylor, T.N., Dotzler, N. & Harper, C.J.
  
• (2016): Whole-plant regeneration via epidermal cells in the axis of the Early Devonian Rhynie chert plant Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii Kidston et Lang, International Journal of Plant Sciences 177: 539-550
  Kearney, P., Kerp, H. & Hass, H.
  
• The Rhynie and Windyfield cherts, Early Devonian, Rhynie, Scotland. In: Fraser, N.C. & Suess, H.-D. (Editors), Terrestrial Conservation Lagerstätten: Windows Into the Evolution of Life on Land. Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh 2017. (ISBN 13: 978-1780460147)
  Trewin, N.H. & Kerp, H.