Devonian Period

Devonian Period
Interval of geologic time from 417 to 354 million years ago; it was the fourth period of the Paleozoic Era.

During the Devonian, a giant continent was situated in the Southern Hemisphere (see Gondwana), and other landmasses were located in the equatorial regions. Siberia was separated from Europe by a broad ocean, and North America and Europe were joined. Many types of primitive marine and freshwater fish appeared and proliferated, and the period is sometimes referred to as the Age of Fishes. Ferns and primitive gymnosperms diversified and created the first forests.

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Introduction
 in geologic time, an interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian Period and precedes the Carboniferous Period, spanning between about 416 million and 359.2 million years ago. The Devonian Period is sometimes called the “Age of Fishes” because of the diverse, abundant, and, in some cases, bizarre types of these creatures that swam Devonian seas. Forests and the coiled shell-bearing marine organisms known as ammonites (ammonoid) first appeared early in the Devonian. Late in the period the first four-legged amphibians appeared, indicating the colonization of land by vertebrates.

 During most of the Devonian Period, North America, Greenland, and Europe were united into a single Northern Hemisphere landmass, a minor supercontinent called Laurussia or Euramerica. This union of the paleocontinents of Laurentia (comprising much of North America, Greenland, northwestern Ireland, Scotland, and the Chukotsk Peninsula of northeastern Russia) and Baltica (now most of northern Europe and Scandinavia) occurred near the beginning of the Devonian Period. Extensive terrestrial deposits known as the Old Red Sandstone covered much of its northern area, while widespread marine deposits accumulated on its southern portion. The paleoequator (the site of the Equator at a point in the geological past) passed through North America and through China, which was at that time a separate landmass. South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica were joined into the Southern Hemisphere continent of Gondwana. Parts of this continent were also often covered by seawater.

      An ocean covered approximately 85 percent of the Devonian globe. There is limited evidence of ice caps, and the climate is thought to have been warm and equitable. The oceans experienced episodes of reduced dissolved oxygen levels, which likely caused the extinction of many species, especially marine animals. These extinctions were followed by periods of species diversification, as the descendants of surviving organisms filled in abandoned habitats.

      The name of the Devonian Period is derived from the county of Devon, Eng. The English geologist Adam Sedgwick (Sedgwick, Adam) and the Scottish geologist Roderick Murchison (Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey) proposed the designation in 1839 for the marine rocks they encountered in southwestern England, following the recognition by another British geologist, William Lonsdale (Lonsdale, William), that fossil corals (coral) from Torquay in Devon seemed intermediate in type between those of the Silurian System below and those of the Lower Carboniferous System above. This led to the conclusion that the fossil corals were marine equivalents of the terrestrial Old Red Sandstone rocks already known in Wales and Scotland. The recognition that such major paleogeographic differences existed was a great scientific advance, and it was soon confirmed when Sedgwick and Murchison visited Germany and again when Murchison discovered an intercalation of Devonian marine fossils and Old Red Sandstone fishes near St. Petersburg, Russia. By 1843 American geologist and paleontologist James Hall (Hall, James) was able to describe equivalent rocks in eastern North America, but precise correlation with European rocks was not achieved until some years later.

The Devonian environment

      The physical geography of the Devonian can be reconstructed using evidence from paleomagnetism (remanent magnetism), paleoclimate, paleobiogeography, and tectonic events. Because the paleomagnetic data for the Devonian is conflicting, recent efforts to describe the positions of the continents have concentrated on the rock types associated with particular environments. Such methods focus on the distribution of evaporites (evaporite), shelf carbonates (carbonate rock), and corals (coral) because present-day deposits of these types have specific, well-known climatic constraints. Faunal distributions are also employed but to a lesser extent.

 The distribution of nonmarine fish and marine invertebrate fossils demonstrates that Europe, Siberia, and the Canadian Arctic islands were linked and formed the bulk of Laurussia. During the Devonian, Asia was composed of many separate microplates that are now joined together. Of these, Siberia and Kazakhstania began fusing during the late Devonian and later joined Laurussia, forming the Ural Mountains along the junction.

      There is general agreement that the paleoequator crossed the northern part of Laurussia during the Devonian. Paleomagnetic evidence, however, is not clear, and various positions for the exact placement of the paleoequator have been proposed. Though Laurussia was essentially tropical or subtropical, its climatic zones changed somewhat through the course of the Devonian as this landmass migrated northward during Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous times. Evidence for this movement includes the reduction in evaporitic environments in western Canada and the onset of humid and moist conditions in the area of New York.

      The southern continents of today were united into the supercontinent of Gondwana during the Devonian approximately along the lines of their present-day continental shelf (ocean) boundaries. Establishing the position of Gondwana is more difficult than for Laurussia. Some interpretations favour a wide ocean separating these two large landmasses, but this arrangement is thought to be unlikely because of the remarkable occurrences of similar corals, brachiopods (lamp shells), and ammonites (ammonoid) in eastern North America, Morocco, and Spain. Yet, even if these areas were close together, their precise positioning is not certain. Based on the similarity in fossils, some researchers would place North Africa adjacent to the eastern North American seaboard during this period. The late Devonian reef developments in Western Australia suggest a near tropical site for this portion of the southern landmass. The positions of the microcontinents that later came together to form Asia are rather uncertain, but many of them probably were either attached or adjacent to the northern margin of Gondwana and migrated north to fuse with the growing area of Asia at several junctures during the later Phanerozoic Eon.

      Paleomagnetic evidence is inconsistent regarding the position of the South Pole. Though some researchers postulate a location in central South America, most favour a position south of central Africa or off its southeast coast. The North Pole was in the ocean.

Paleoclimate (paleoclimatology)
      Though most environments present today were represented during the Devonian, evidence of glacial deposits is questionable. It is clear that if polar ice caps did exist, they were very much smaller than they are today. It is thus concluded that Earth was warmer during Devonian time than at present.

      Warm and equable climates were common, as shown by the wide distribution of evaporite basins in the Northern Hemisphere, by coal deposits in Arctic Canada and Spitsbergen, and by widespread desert conditions and carbonate reefs. Devonian salt deposits indicative of high evaporation rates, and thus of high temperatures, range from western Canada to Ukraine and Siberia and are found locally in Australia. Evidence of cooler average temperatures is provided by annual tree rings in Archaeopteris trunks from New York state that record seasonal growth patterns characteristic of higher latitudes.

      Studies of growth lines on Devonian corals indicate that the Devonian year was longer, about 400 days. The lunar cycle, about 301/2 days, was one day longer than it is now.

Devonian life
 A highly varied invertebrate fauna that originated in the preceding Silurian Period continued in the Devonian, and most ecological niches of shallow and deep marine water were exploited. The remarkable proliferation of primitive fishes, which has given the period the name the “Age of Fishes,” occurred in both fresh and marine waters. Derivation of carnivorous fishes from mud-eating forms occurred early in the period, and tetrapods (four-legged land animals) were derived from fishes near the close of the period. Also remarkable is the rise to dominance of vascular plants. Though groves of trees must have arisen earlier to provide the widespread plant debris noted in Devonian deposits, the first known evidence of in-place forests dates from the Middle Devonian.

Invertebrates (invertebrate)
      The Devonian invertebrates are essentially of the type established during the Ordovician Period. In nearshore sandy and silty environments, bivalves (bivalve), burrowing organisms, brachiopods (lamp shells) (lamp shells), and simple corals (coral) abounded. In offshore environments free from land detritus, biostromes and bioherms flourished, rich in corals, stromatoporoids (large colonial marine organisms similar to hydrozoans), crinoids (crinoid), brachiopods, trilobites (trilobite), gastropods (gastropod), and other forms. In deeper waters, goniatite ammonites (a form of cephalopod), which were one of the few new groups to appear, were abundant. Surface waters were occupied by small dacryoconarids (a shelled marine invertebrate) and by ostracods (mussel shrimp) later in the period. Among the Protozoa, both Foraminifera (foraminiferan) and Radiolaria (radiolarian) were well represented, and sponges (sponge) were locally abundant.

      The corals (coral) and stromatoporoids were extremely important for building reef facies. The limestone-reef and forereef facies and biostromal limestones are known in many areas of the world. The corals include tabulate corals, such as Favosites and Alveolites, but especially rugose corals (horn corals), which have been used to establish correlations. Stromatoporoids (a type of sponge with a layered skeleton composed of calcium carbonates) such as Amphipora were common rock builders in the mid-Devonian of the Northern Hemisphere. The twiglike form of Amphipora produces a “spaghetti” or “vermicelli” rock. Elsewhere, only simple corals are frequently found.

      Bryozoan (moss animal)s (marine moss animals superficially similar to corals) were especially common in shallow shelf seas of the period. Both stony and netted forms occurred, but only the latter, the fenestellids, became important during the period.

      The brachiopods (lamp shells) (lamp shells) are a group of marine filter-feeding species that bear a resemblance to clams but are not mollusks. Brachiopods were present in a multitude of diverse forms during the Devonian Period. The spire-bearing spiriferoids were perhaps the most common and have been used as index fossils (index fossil). Two groups of importance emerged: the loop-bearing terebratulids and the spiny mud-dwelling productids. At the same time, a number of groups became extinct, including various orthids and the pentamerids.

      Molluscan (mollusk) groups were well represented. The marine clams (bivalves (bivalve)) diversified greatly during the period, especially in the nearshore environments. The earliest freshwater bivalves appeared in the Late Devonian. The gastropods (gastropod) were well diversified, particularly in calcareous (calcium carbonate or limestone) environments, and became even more diversified in later periods. The Scaphopoda (tusk shells) first appeared in the Devonian Period. Another significant Devonian event was the emergence of the ammonites (ammonoid) from their still-extant nautiloid ancestors. In the chambered shell of the ammonites, internal septa create elaborate patterns where they join the outer shell. The complexity of these suture patterns culminated in the ammonites of the Mesozoic Era. From their origin (probably in the Emsian Age (Emsian Stage)) the evolution of goniatite ammonites, as well as other ammonites, allows detailed zonal subdivisions to be established until the end of the Cretaceous Period. Devonian goniatites have been found on all continents except Antarctica.

      Among the arthropods (arthropod), the giant eurypterids (eurypterid) (sea scorpions) are found in the Old Red Sandstone facies. Some were predatory carnivores and probably lived on fish. The first insect, most likely a collembolan (springtail) ( apterygote), from a group of wingless insects that feed on leaf litter and soil, has been recorded from the Devonian Period of Russia and other areas of Asia. Ostracods (mussel shrimp) (a type of crustacean) were locally very abundant; benthic (bottom-dwelling) forms occur in continental shelf sea deposits, and planktonic (floating) forms occur in the Upper Devonian, where their remains form widespread ostracod- slate facies. Trilobites (trilobite) were well developed in size (some up to 61 cm, or 24 inches, long), variety, and distribution. Nearly all have clearly established Silurian ancestors. The most common were the phacopids, which exhibit a curious trend toward blindness in the Late Devonian. Almost all the diverse Lower Paleozoic trilobite stocks that entered the period were extinct before the close, and only the proetaceans survived into the Carboniferous Period.

      Among echinoderms (echinoderm), the holothureans, asteroids, and ophiuroids are known, but they are rare. Crinoids (crinoid) were abundant, including free-living types with grapnel-shaped anchors. The blastoids (blastoid) diversified considerably, but the cystoids did not survive the period.

Vertebrates (vertebrate)
      Conodonts (conodont) (recently recognized as toothlike elements of very primitive eel-like vertebrates) are abundant in many Devonian marine facies. Conodonts had perhaps their greatest diversification during the Late Devonian and are of major importance for the correlation of rock layers. More than 40 conodont zones are recognized within the Devonian, and these provide a high-resolution biostraphic framework for the period.

 Many groups of Devonian fishes were heavily armoured, and this has led to their good representation in the fossil record. Fish remains are widespread in the Old Red Sandstone rocks of Europe, especially in the Welsh borderland and Scottish areas of Britain; these are mostly associated with freshwater or estuarine deposits. In other areas marine fishes are known, and some of these, such as Dunkleosteus ( Dinichthys) from the Upper Devonian Period of Ohio, U.S., may have reached 9 metres (30 feet) in length.

 The earliest fishes, comprising the agnathans (agnathan), were without jaws and presumably were mud eaters and scavengers. These types are usually called ostracoderms (ostracoderm). Some, such as the osteostracan cephalaspids, had broad, platelike armour of varied form; the brain and nerve structures in some of these are well known. The anaspids also were covered with armour in the form of scales. The heterostracans, which include the oldest known fishes, have an anterior armour basically of upper (dorsal) and lower (ventral) plates; Pteraspis is an example. The Early Devonian saw the entry of jawed forms or gnathostomes, and the armoured forms of these, the placoderms, characterize the epoch. The arthrodires, which had a hinged frontal armour in two portions, and the grotesque antiarchs belong here. The close of the Devonian saw the diminution and extinction of most of these groups, but several other groups continued and have a significant later history.

      Sharklike fishes, the chondrichthians (chondrichthian), have been found in the Middle Devonian. The bony fishes, or osteichthians of current classification, include the climatioid acanthodeans, which had appeared before the period began, but the lungfishes ( Dipnoi), the coelacanths (coelacanth), and the rhipidistians (Rhipidistia) made their first appearance during this time. The last group is thought to have given rise to the four-footed amphibians as well as to all other higher groups of vertebrates.

Plants
      It is now known that some supposedly Silurian plants, such as those at Baragwanath, Vic., Australia, are actually from the Early Devonian. The Late Silurian record of Cooksonia fossils of the Czech Republic seems to be the earliest unquestionable evidence of vascular plants. Information on spores (spore) provided by palynologists (palynology) would help determine the antecedents of the Devonian plants.

      There was a remarkable initiation of diverse types of vascular plants during the Devonian, and a varied flora was established early in the period. Evidence of algae is common; bryophytes (bryophyte) first appear, and charophytes are locally common. Freshwater algae and fungi (fungus) are known in the Rhynie Chert of Scotland. The first known forests are of late Middle Devonian age.

      The Psylotophytopsida is the most primitive group of the pteridophytes (pteridophyte) (ferns and other seedless vascular plants); this group did not survive the Late Devonian. Cooksonia, Rhynia, and others possessing a naked stem with terminal sporangia (spore cases) belong here. In other members, sporangia were borne laterally but no true leaves were developed, and the branching was often of a primitive dichotomous type. Psylotophytopsids form a basic stock from which other groups apparently evolved. Asteroxylon, which occurs with Rhynia, and other Rhynie plants (Rhynie plant) in the Lower Old Red Sandstone Rhynie Chert of Scotland form a link with the lycopsids by having lateral sporangia and a dense leafy stem. Psylotophytopsids soon gave rise to treelike forms and later to the important lepidodendrid (Lepidodendron)s of the Carboniferous flora. Another apparent derivative, the sphenopsids, which has jointed branches, is represented by Hyenia and Pseudobornia. Pteropsids also appeared in the Devonian. Primitive gymnosperms (gymnosperm) are known, and trunks of Archaeopteris up to 1.8 metres (6 feet) in diameter are present in Upper Devonian deposits of the eastern United States and the Donets Basin of Russia and Ukraine. These trunks apparently were carried by water to their current positions.

      The rich record of land plants may be related to the fact that the Old Red Sandstone represents the first widespread record of continental conditions. However, the primitive nature of the stocks seen and the absence of a long earlier record, even of detrital fragments of vascular plants, suggest that the colonization and exploitation of land environments were real Devonian events. Fortuitous finds, such as the silicified flora of the Rhynie Chert and the pyritized (pyrite) tissue from the Upper Devonian of New York, have enabled the intimate anatomy of many of these plants to be elucidated in detail equivalent to that of modern forms.

Faunal (faunal region) realms and migrations
 There is a marked similarity in the fauna and flora of the Devonian continental facies the world over. Records from such deposits in China containing Early Devonian genera of the armoured fish Cephalaspis and Pterichthys or the widespread Australian records of Bothriolepis, a Late Devonian antiarch, correspond closely to those of the Old Red Sandstone in Europe. Yet, when studied in more detail, specific differences become apparent. It has been suggested that the Baltic fish succession is so rich that the area must have formed a migration centre. This may be so, but the wide distribution of supposed estuarine and freshwater fishes raises many problems. Many of these can be resolved if the continents were closer together during the Devonian than at present.

      The marine life of the Devonian gives little evidence of faunal provinces. It is true that in the Lower Devonian the brachiopod (lamp shells) Australocoelia has been recognized only in the Antarctic, the Falkland Islands, South America, South Africa, and Tasmania and that Australospirifer, Scaphiocoelia, and Pleurothyrella share parts of this distribution. These genera are not known in the marine Lower Devonian of northern continents and seem to establish an “austral” fauna of limited circum-Antarctic distribution at this time (if the southern continents were then united as Gondwana). Elements of this fauna are often called “Malvinokaffric” after the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands and the South African Bokkeveld Beds. At other levels in the Devonian, however, provincial distinctions are not apparent, with the exception of local coral provinces that are distinguishable in areas of Asia.

extinction events
      Throughout the Devonian there were periods of widespread hypoxic or anoxic sedimentation (that is, sedimentary events indicated that little free oxygen or no oxygen at all was dissolved in Devonian seas). Some of these are known to be periods of significant extinction, and all are associated with some faunal anomaly in marine strata. These events are named according to the taxa involved. Some are associated with very wide distribution of certain taxa, such as the Monograptus uniformis, Pinacites jugleri, and Platyclymenia annulata events. The Lower Zlichov Event is associated with the extinction of the graptoloids and the appearance of the coiled cephalopod goniatites. Three events are very significant extinction episodes: the Taghanic Event, which formerly was used to draw the boundary between the Middle and Upper Devonian, was a marked period of extinction for goniatites, corals, and brachiopods; the Kellwasser Event saw the extinction of the beloceratid and manticoceratid goniatite groups, many conodont species, most colonial corals, several groups of trilobites, and the atrypid and pentamerid brachiopods at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary; and the Hangenberg Event saw the extinction of phacopid trilobites, several groups of goniatites, and the unusual late Devonian coiled cephalopods, the clymeniids, at the end of the Famennian Stage.

      Earlier, certain writers sought to link these events with thin layers of iridium, characteristic of meteorite or bolide impacts. Evidence of a bolide impact, in the form of possible impact ejecta, has been reported in Middle Devonian deposits and is associated with a pulse of extinction. An impact crater about 65 km (about 40 miles) in diameter, the Siljan structure in Sweden, has been dated to approximately 377 million years ago. This places the impact within the error range for the estimated boundary between the Frasnian-Famennian stages (about 374.5 million years ago) and also within the Kellwasser extinction. Nevertheless, the connection between this impact and the Kellwasser Event is still being debated.

      A stronger environmental link to Devonian extinctions involves the layers of black shale characteristic of low oxygen conditions. Environmental stress is thought to take place when high global temperatures slow the mixing rate between the ocean's surface and deeper layers. Bottom waters experience a lowered re-oxygenation rate, which may result in the extinction of many marine species. It is still debated whether these events were caused by climatic extremes caused by an increase in the amount of solar energy from the Sun, an amplified greenhouse effect, or by processes wholly confined to the Earth. For example, greater production of organic matter, perhaps owing to an increased influx of nutrients related to the colonization of landmasses by rooted plants, may have made continental seas more susceptible to anoxia.

      There is also evidence that extinctions may be associated with rapid global warming or cooling. Particularly in the Late Devonian, extinction events may relate to periods of abrupt cooling associated with the development of glaciers and the substantial lowering of sea level. It has been argued that patterns of faunal change at the Kellwasser Event are consistent with global cooling.

      At present it is not possible to connect Devonian extinctions definitively with any single cause, and, indeed, it is probable that extinctions may record a combination of several stresses.

Devonian geology

Significant geologic events
 The union of the paleocontinents of Laurentia and Baltica occurred near the beginning of the Devonian to form a single landmass that has been referred to both as Laurussia and as Euramerica. The northern portion of the combined landmass gave rise to widespread areas of continental desert, playa, and alluvial plain (floodplain) deposits that form one of the earliest documented large areas of nonmarine sedimentation. These terrestrial deposits, known as the Old Red Sandstone, covered much of the then-united areas of North America, Greenland, Scandinavia, and the northern British Isles. They contain remarkable documentation of the colonization of land by vertebrates as well as that of freshwater rivers and lakes by plants and fish. The two latter groups existed prior to this time, but they had their earliest extensive evolutionary radiation during the Devonian.

      The areas south of the Old Red Sandstone, including sectors of eastern and western North America, central and southern Europe, and parts of European Russia, were often covered by shallow continental shelf (ocean) seas with local deeper marine troughs.

      The continental collision that united these paleocontinents, which began during the Silurian Period, resulted from the closing of the Iapetus Ocean (which was the precursor of the Atlantic Ocean) and is known as the Iapetus suture. It was marked by a mountain-building event, the Caledonian orogeny (Caledonian orogenic belt), that established a mountain chain stretching from present-day eastern North America through Greenland, western Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, and northern England and south to the fringes of western North Africa. Considerable igneous activity was associated with the Caledonian orogenic belt, both intrusive (emplacement of magmatic bodies at depth) and extrusive (volcanic activity at the surface). Sediments derived from erosion of the mountain belt formed locally important strata such as the European deposits laid down during the Lower Devonian and the Catskill Delta in New York state begun in the Middle Devonian.

 The present-day southern continents of South America, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica and the Indian subcontinent were joined together as the enormous continental mass called Gondwana during the Devonian. Large areas of Asia east of the Ural Mountains were divided into separate landmasses at this point in Earth history. Their distribution is poorly understood, but many of them may have been attached to the margins of Gondwana. Also during the Devonian Period, Gondwana began impinging upon Laurussia. There is evidence that these two landmasses completely fused together during the Late Carboniferous (Carboniferous Period) or Early Permian (Permian Period) periods.

      Sea level rose (transgressed) and fell (regressed) frequently during the Devonian. Some of these episodes were accompanied by a brief period of deposition of anoxic (oxygen-depleted) black shales (shale) or limestones (limestone). Many of these deposits are quite widespread. Some are associated with the extinction of important groups of fossil organisms.

Economic significance of Devonian deposits
      In many countries Devonian rocks have provided building stone, refractory and building brick, glass sands, and abrasive materials. marble of Devonian age has been quarried in France and Belgium. German medieval castles are mostly clad with Devonian slates (slate). In areas of European Russia and in Saskatchewan, Can., evaporites (evaporite), including anhydrite and halite, are commercially exploited. Lodes of tin, zinc, and copper occur in several areas where Devonian rocks have been subject to orogenic (mountain-building) processes, such as in Devon and Cornwall in England and in central Europe. Since the 19th century, oil (petroleum) and natural gas have been produced from Devonian rocks in New York and Pennsylvania. In the 1930s, oil was found in Devonian sandstones in the Ural-Volga region and later in the Pechora area of northern European Russia. In 1947 oil was discovered in an Upper Devonian reef at Leduc, Alta., Can.; this was followed by vigorous exploration, and oil production from the area remains significant today.

Major subdivisions of the Devonian System
 The rocks formed during Devonian time are known as the Devonian System. These rocks occur on all continents both at the surface and as substrata. Extensive areas of North America, South America, Europe, and Asia are underlain by Devonian rocks. Subsequent folding has made such rocks common in many ancient fold belts.

      The rocks of the Devonian System are divided into the Lower Devonian Series (416–397.5 million years ago; comprising the Lochkovian (Lochkovian Stage), Pragian (Pragian Stage), and Emsian (Emsian Stage) stages), the Middle Devonian S eries (397.5–385.3 million years ago; comprising the Eifelian (Eifelian Stage) and Givetian (Givetian Stage) stages), and the Upper Devonian Series (385.3–359.2 million years ago; comprising the Frasnian (Frasnian Stage) and Famennian (Famennian Stage) stages).

Establishing Devonian boundaries
 During the last half of the 20th century, the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) defined the boundaries and subdivisions of the Devonian System using a series of Global Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs). The base of the Lochkovian Stage—that is, the Silurian-Devonian boundary—is in a section at Klonk, Czech Rep. A point at La Serre in southern France has been identified as the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. All stages and series of the Devonian were ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) using GSSPs during the period 1972 to 1995. The standard stages are shown on the table—>. The base of the Pragian Stage is defined at Velká Chuchle, near Prague; the base of the Emsian Stage is defined in the Zinzil'ban Gorge in Uzbekistan; the base of the Eifelian Stage is defined near Wetteldorf in the Eifel Hills of Germany; the base of the Givetian Stage is defined at Mech Irdane, near Erfoud in southern Morocco; and the bases of the Frasnian (Frasnian Stage) and Famennian (Famennian Stage) stages are both defined near Cessenon in southern France.

      Stratigraphic boundaries within the Devonian System are correlated using various fossil groups. In Devonian marine deposits, small toothlike conodonts and chambered cephalopod ammonites (ammonoid) are especially important, but spores, brachiopods (lamp shells) (lamp shells), and corals are also useful. In nonmarine deposits, freshwater fish and plant spores are employed for correlation. In the past, considerable difficulty was encountered in correlating the Silurian-Devonian boundary, and serious errors were made. This situation resulted because of the misconception that graptolites (graptolite) became extinct at the boundary. It is now known that these invertebrates range into the Emsian. In areas where graptolites range into the Early Devonian, especially in mainland Europe and Asia, much miscorrelation occurred. Today the base of the graptolite zone of Monograptus uniformis is regarded as marking the base of the Devonian.

Occurrence and distribution of Devonian deposits
      Europe and North America were united approximately along their present continental slope margins during the Devonian Period. The collision of these two landmasses resulted in the Caledonian orogeny. At the close of the Silurian and continuing in the Early Devonian, considerable igneous activity (both extrusive and intrusive) occurred in the Caledonian mountain belt (Caledonian orogenic belt), which stretched from New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Scotland, and Scandinavia to eastern Greenland. Radiometric dating of granitic intrusions associated with the Caledonian orogeny yields ages between about 430 million and 380 million years. The igneous activity that produced such intrusions constituted the final stages of subduction and obduction (that is, overthrusting of the edge of one lithospheric plate over another at a convergent boundary), leading to the union of the constituent parts of Laurussia.

      The Caledonian mountains were undergoing active uplift during the Devonian. The Old Red Sandstone deposits appear to be the detritus produced by the erosion of these mountain areas. Clastic material from the belt dominated the European Lower Devonian but was local and limited after that point. In eastern North America similar activity near the Silurian-Devonian boundary was followed by renewed activity during the Middle Devonian that was associated with the Acadian orogeny and the commencement of the Catskill Delta. The easterly derived fan clastics of the latter are increasingly dominant eastward across New York state, and its mostly nonmarine alluvial rocks are best seen in the Catskill Mountains near Albany.

      Marine Devonian rocks provide evidence that marine waters encircled Laurussia. These rocks are now located in western Canada and the Arctic islands of Canada, in a belt from Montana to New York in the United States, in Europe from Devon to the Holy Cross Mountains of Poland, and on the Russian Platform and Novaya Zemlya.

      It is clear that there was probably easterly directed subduction in western North America during the Devonian. Relics of this process are incorporated into the Cordilleran mountain chain as discrete terranes that were accreted to the continent during or after the Devonian. The clearest evidence is from the mid-Famennian (Famennian Stage) Antler orogeny, during which a tectonic event resulted in clastic material being shed eastward. This event is well documented, especially in Nevada.

      In many areas Devonian rocks have been heavily deformed and folded by subsequent tectonic activity. These fold belts may be distinguished from cratonic areas where sediments remain much as they were when formed. The main fold belts in North America are the Cordillera (western mountain ranges, including the Rocky Mountains) and the Appalachian belts to the east. In contrast, the Devonian of the Midwestern United States and adjoining areas is flat-lying. In South America the main fold belt is the Andes and sub-Andes; east of this line, the Devonian rocks are little disturbed. In Australia the main fold belt is in the east from Queensland to Tasmania. In Europe the Armorican fold belt stretches eastward from Cornwall and Brittany. To the south of this line from the Pyrenees to Malaysia, Devonian rocks are caught up in the Alpine-Himalayan fold belt. Similarly, the Devonian of the Ural Mountains is disturbed, whereas to the west, on the Russian Platform, and to the east there is less deformation. In all these cases the folding occurred well after the Devonian, but there is evidence that Devonian sedimentation contributed to the oceanic belts that were sites of the mountain building that occurred later.

      In the regions that have suffered severe deformation, the Devonian sediments are frequently metamorphosed into slates and schists and often lose all the characteristics by which they may be dated. In areas where little change has taken place, all rock lithologies occur, from those characteristic of continental and desert conditions to the varied lithologies associated with continental shelf and deep-sea accumulation. Contemporary igneous activity was widespread in the form of extrusive lavas, submarine pillow lavas, tuffs, agglomerates, and bentonites, as well as igneous intrusions. Extrusive activity is found in both continental and marine environments, whereas plutonic intrusions are usually linked with areas of uplift such as the Caledonian and Acadian belts of Europe and eastern North America.

      A wide range of terrestrial and marine sediments of Devonian age are known internationally, and there is a corresponding variety of sedimentary rock types. Devonian igneous activity was considerable, albeit localized. Laurussia is thought to have been near-tropical and sometimes arid. Playa facies, eolian dunes, and fan breccias are known. Fluviatile sediments, deposited by water under flash-flood conditions, have been identified, and these are correlated to alluvial sediments of broad coastal flats. There are lacustrine deposits of freshwater or supersaline type. Similar facies are known in other continental areas of the Devonian. Similarly, nearshore clastic, prodelta, and delta sandstones and offshore mud facies are comparable to those known in other periods.

      Devonian sedimentary rocks (sedimentary rock) include the spectacular carbonate reef deposits of Western Australia, Europe, and western Canada, where the reefs are largely formed of stromatoporoids. These marine invertebrates suddenly vanished almost entirely by the end of the Frasnian Age, after which reefs were formed locally of cyanobacterian stromatolites. Other areas have reefs formed by mud mounds, and there are spectacular examples in southern Morocco, southern Algeria, and Mauritania. Also distinctively Devonian is the development of locally extensive black shale deposits. The Upper Devonian Antrim, New Albany, and Chattanooga shales are of this variety, and in Europe the German Hunsrückschiefer and Wissenbacherschiefer are similar. The latter are frequently characterized by distinctive fossils, though rarely of the benthic variety, indicating that they were formed when seafloor oxygen levels were very low. Distinctive condensed pelagic limestones (limestone) rich in fossil cephalopods occur locally in Europe and the Urals; these form the facies termed Cephalopodenkalk or Knollenkalk in Germany and griotte in France. In former times the latter was worked for marble. evaporite deposits are widespread, but coals are rare. There is no firm evidence for glacial deposits except in the late Devonian of Brazil. Various types of volcanic rocks have been observed in the areas that were converging island-arc regimes. Some volcanic ash horizons, such as the Tioga Metabentonite of the eastern United States, represent short-term events that are useful for correlation.

      A line passing from the Bristol Channel eastward to northern Belgium and Germany roughly demarcates the Devonian marine area from the Old Red Sandstone continental deposits to the south. The continental deposits, which characteristically are red-stained with iron oxide, extend also to Greenland, Spitsbergen, Bear Island, and Norway. The British geologist Robert Jameson coined the term Old Red Sandstone in 1808, mistakenly thinking it to be A.G. Werner's Aelter Rother Sandstein, now known to be of Permian age. The rocks of this wide area have a remarkable affinity in both fauna and rock type and are usually considered to have been united (United Kingdom) in Devonian times. The relationships with the underlying Silurian System are seen in the classic Welsh borderlands, where the Ludlow Bone Bed was taken as the boundary until international agreement placed it somewhat higher. In Wales, southern Ireland, and the Scottish Lowlands, thicknesses of detrital deposits, chiefly sandstones, accumulated to as much as 6,100 metres (20,000 feet) in places. These sediments are rich in fish and plants, as are the eastern Greenland and Norwegian deposits. Widespread volcanics occur in Scotland.

      Devonian rocks in Devon and Cornwall are mostly marine, but there are intercalations of terrestrial deposits from the north. In northern Devon, at least 3,660 metres (12,000 feet) of shales, thin limestones, sandstones, and conglomerates occur. The latter two lithologies are typical of the Hangman Grits and Pickwell Down Sandstones, which are the main terrestrial intercalations. However, in southern Devon, reef limestones occur in Middle Devonian formations, and the Upper Devonian formation locally shows very thin sequences formed on submarine rises and contemporary pillow lavas in basinal areas. In northern Cornwall both the Middle and Upper Devonian formations primarily occur in slate facies. Fossils found in these rocks have permitted detailed correlations with the Belgian and German sequences.

      Devonian rocks of mixed terrestrial and marine type are known from boreholes under London, and these form a link with the Pas de Calais outcrops and to the classic areas of the Ardennes. There, between the Dinant Basin and Namur Basin to the north, is evidence of a northward landmass, as in Devon. Both the Lower and Upper Devonian formations consist of nearshore and terrigenous sediments that reach thicknesses of 2,740 metres (9,000 feet) and 460 metres (1,500 feet), respectively. The Middle Devonian and lower Upper Devonian (that is, the Eifelian, Givetian, and Frasnian stages, whose former type sections are here) structures consist mainly of limestones and shales and reach at least 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) in the south. Reefs are especially well developed in the Frasnian and occur as isolated masses, usually less than about 800 metres (2,600 feet) in length, separated by shales. Equivalents to the north show red and green silts and shales of marginal continental marine sediments. Because the Belgian Devonian rocks are well exposed along a north-south line, their changes in thickness, lithology, and fauna have been well documented.

      The Eifel forms a natural eastern extension of the Ardennes, and a somewhat similar succession occurs there. The Lower Devonian pattern is nonmarine, and the Middle Devonian and Frasnian formations have a poor reef development, but the calcareous shales and limestones carry a rich and famous fauna. The GSSP defining the Lower-Middle Devonian boundary and base of the Eifelian Stage is at Schöenecken-Wetteldorf in the Eifel. The uppermost Devonian structure is not preserved.

      The Rhine (Rhine River) valley, along with the Middle Rhine Highlands to the east, has been the subject of extensive study by the numerous German universities that surround it since the early days of geology. Again, a northern sediment source is generally indicated, but a borehole well to the north near Münster has encountered Middle and lower Upper Devonian marine limestones. To the south, approaching the Hunsrück-Taunus mountains, there is also evidence of a landmass. Between these areas a rich Devonian sequence is exposed in folded terrain. The maximum thickness is 9,140 metres (30,000 feet). The Lower Devonian formation consists of slates and sandstones. The slate has been much worked to clad houses and castles. A ledge of Emsian sandstone in the Rhine gorge is the setting for the Lorelei legend. Limestones are common in the Givetian and are termed Massenkalk. Middle and Upper Devonian areas of thin sedimentation, as in Devon, are interpreted as deposits on submarine ridges. These are commonly nodular limestones that are rich in cephalopods and that occur between thick shale sequences. Evidence of volcanic activity is common, and this has been invoked to explain the concentrations of sedimentary hematite iron ores in the Givetian and Frasnian. The Harz Mountains show a more calcareous Lower Devonian section. Here, copper, lead, and zinc have been exploited from lodes in the famous Wissenbach Slate.

      A calcareous Lower Devonian succession, the Bohemian facies, occurs in the Prague Basin of eastern Europe. A continuous marine succession formed from the Silurian into the Devonian, and the boundary is drawn at the top of the Silurian Series with the crinoid genus Scyphocrinites. The overlying Lochkovian (Lochkovian Stage) and Pragian formations (Pragian Stage) include the Koneprusy Limestone, which contains substantial reef deposits. The GSSP defining the base of the Devonian System and the Lochkovian Stage is at Klonk, and that defining the base of the Pragian is at Velká Chuchle, near Prague. The Upper Devonian structure is not preserved. In Moravia, complete successions of calcareous and basinal volcanic sediments occur.

      Devonian rocks of a type analogous to those of southern England and the Ardennes crop out in Brittany. Farther south, outcrops occur in France, Spain, and Portugal. The GSSPs defining the Middle-Upper Devonian boundary and base of the Frasnian Stage, the base of the Famennian Stage, and the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary are drawn near Cessenon in southern France. The successions of the Pyrenees, Noire Mountains, and Carnic Alps include deepwater limestones. Marine deposits occur in the Balkan Peninsula, including Macedonia as well as Romania. The southern Polish outcrops of the Holy Cross Mountains (Świętokrzyskie Mountains) are especially famous. They include a lower marine and continental series with a calcareous Middle Devonian section and an Upper Devonian section of reefs and shales rich in ammonites and trilobites.

      In Podolia along the Dniester (Dnestr) River are fine marine sections that go up well into the Lower Devonian and are overlain by the Dniester Series of the Old Red Sandstone type. During the entire Devonian, the Ural Mountains formed a depressional trough linked northward to Novaya Zemlya and southward to the Crimean-Caucasian geosyncline that, along with the southern European outcrops already mentioned, formed part of the original Tethyan sediments of the Alpine-Himalayan fold system of the present day. In European Russia, Old Red Sandstone deposits are widespread, but marine tongues stretched westward from the Urals to reach Moscow in the Middle Devonian and St. Petersburg in the lower Upper Devonian. A remarkable series of boreholes revealed these relationships in great detail, and there is widespread evidence for salt lakes. Apart from the St. Petersburg outcrop and those along the Don River south of Moscow, the salt lakes are known from subsurface data only. Of economic importance here are the Timan-Pechora oil and gas field and the oil and potash of the Pripet Marshes. The North African areas of Algeria and especially Morocco are noted for their wealth of Devonian fossils. The GSSP defining the base of the Givetian Stage is at Mech Irdane, near Erfoud in southern Morocco.

      Devonian rocks are widespread in Asia east of the Ural Mountains; however, in Devonian time Asia was composed of separated microcratons, or terranes, that appear to have been attached or adjacent to the northern margin of Gondwana. The coalescence into present-day Asia took place after the Devonian. Devonian rocks are well known to fringe the central Siberian craton (a Devonian microcontinent), particularly in some of the northern coastal islands, the Kolyma River basin, and even farther east in Siberia. A particularly good record has been found in Kazakhstan. Devonian rocks occur in the Caucasus and Tien Shan mountains along the southern border of Kyrgyzstan, and there is an excellent carbonate sequence in the Salair and a full marine sequence in the Altai. The Altai-Sayan area contains a wealth of Old Red Sandstone fishes and plants. The GSSP defining the base of the Emsian Stage is in the Zinzil'ban Gorge of Uzbekistan.

      Scattered Devonian sequences occur in Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan, but the Himalayan records need revision, as it has now been determined that reported significant fossils are spurious and come from quite different areas. Isolated Devonian rocks are known in Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), and Malaysia.

      The Greater Khingan Range (Da Hinggan Range) has a good record of Middle and Upper Devonian marine deposits. China is especially noted for its Devonian rocks; both marine and nonmarine facies occur. Reefs and carbonate deposits also are well developed, and the photographically spectacular sugar-loaf hills near Guilin are of Devonian age. Much research by Chinese geologists since the early 1980s has led to great advances in knowledge of the Devonian in the many outcrops in China. Devonian rocks in Japan contain the plant genus Leptophloeum, which is also widespread in China.

      In New Zealand the Lower Devonian is known in the Reefton and Baton River areas. The brachiopods in the faunal assemblages include European elements and have few typical austral types.

      Devonian rocks are known in eastern Australia in a belt from Queensland to Tasmania as part of the Tasman geosyncline. Fluviatile sediments are found to the west. Thicknesses of 6,100 metres (20,000 feet) are known. Leptophloeum is found in the Upper Devonian portion. Devonian rocks occur in central Australia in Lake Amadeus and along the western coast in the Carnarvon, Canning, and Bonaparte Gulf basins. Complex facies changes are known, and the Canning Basin reef complexes show every detail of forereef, reef, and backreef structures exposed by modern erosion.

      In the Antarctic (Antarctica) both marine and continental Devonian strata occur, the latter rich in fossil fishes of European genera. The marine Lower Devonian shows some affinity with the Bokkeveld in South Africa, which in turn has strong links with South America. No Devonian strata are known in Africa between the Bokkeveld and sections in Ghana and northwestern Africa.

      Early Devonian marine rocks are well developed in South America, but the Late Devonian is poorly documented. In the western mountains of the Andes and sub-Andes, Devonian remnants are preserved from southern Chile north to Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia. The Devonian rocks of Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil are thought to represent marine transgression from the west. Both continental and marine fossils have been documented. The fauna of the Falkland Islands as well as of the Paraná and Parnaíba basins include many genera of brachiopods and trilobites that are common within the circum-Antarctic region but unknown in the Northern Hemisphere. In Venezuela and Colombia, however, plant, animal, fungus, and microorganism fossils of Appalachian (Appalachian Mountains) type dominate, although austral elements such as the brachiopod Australospirifer linger.

      The Appalachian area of eastern North America shows spectacular and historically famous Devonian rocks that were first described by James Hall (Hall, James) in New York state between 1836 and 1855. A source of sand and other clastics in the east provided a flood of sediment from an eastern land area, which formed the Devonian Catskill Delta that filled a broad sedimentary trough. In the area encompassing Ontario, Michigan, and Indiana, early thin calcareous sequences give way to deeper-water marine black shales, which were formed especially in the area of the Great Lakes and south beyond Indiana. The central area of the United States formed a mid-continental rise during the Devonian, and the Devonian rock record there is thin and incomplete. Devonian rocks are well developed in New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and north to Montana, where evaporites in the subsurface are known to extend into Saskatchewan. In the mountainous area of the eastern United States, Devonian rocks are scattered and may have coalesced from separate microcratons or microplates over a long period of time. Very thick sequences of Devonian volcanics are known, for example, in the Sierra Nevada of California. In western Canada, flat-lying Devonian rocks are well known in the subsurface of Saskatchewan, and in Alberta they include oil-bearing Devonian reefs. Devonian reef complexes also occur along the Canadian (Canadian Rockies) Rocky Mountains. Involved in the thrusting of the Rockies, they can be seen in Alberta's Banff and Jasper national parks. In more-scattered outcrops to the east, it would appear that deeper-water facies are represented. Following the discovery of oil in a Devonian reef at Leduc, Alta., much detailed exploration was undertaken. Rocks of Devonian age are widespread from there northward to the Canadian Arctic islands and Alaska. Their faunal assemblages show many similarities with those of Europe.

Correlation of Devonian strata
      Most groups of fossil forms contribute to the establishment of a faunal and floral chronology that enables Devonian rocks to be correlated. For the continental deposits, fish and plant spores are most important. The fishes give a very precise zonation in parts of the system. The Baltic Frasnian (Frasnian Stage), for example, can be divided into at least five time zones using psammosteids (Agnatha (agnathan)), thus probably equaling the precision possible for the better-known marine Frasnian sequences. Many problems remain, however, in the correlation of the continental and the marine deposits.

      The faunal succession (faunal succession, law of) in marine strata has been established for many groups, but only those of significance for international correlations are mentioned here. Traditionally, the goniatites and clymenids (ammonites) form the standard. The succession established first in Germany by the paleontologist Rudolf Wedekind in 1917 has been found to hold for all continents where representatives have been discovered.

      Rivaling the ammonites in most parts of the Devonian and useful for defining the divisions of the system are the conodonts (conodont). The Late Devonian was characterized by a spectacular evolutionary radiation of Palmatolepis and its relatives.

      The brachiopods (lamp shells), although more restricted, are also important. This is particularly true of the spiriferids of the Early Devonian and of the entry and evolution of the cyrtospiriferid types in the Late Devonian. The rhynchonellids also are of great value in the subdivision of the Late Devonian. Some brachiopods, however, show diverse distribution patterns. Stringocephalus, a well-known Middle Devonian guide fossil in the western United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, is entirely absent from the rich New York succession; yet Tropidoleptus, elsewhere confined to the Lower and Middle Devonian, ranges high in the Devonian of New York. Corals (coral) also have been used for correlation, but further work suggests they were particularly sensitive to changing local environments and thus are poor time indicators.

Michael R. House

Additional Reading
A comprehensive summary of the Devonian Period is M.R. House and F.M. Gradstein, “The Devonian Period,” in Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, and Alan G. Smith (eds.), A Geologic Time Scale 2004 (2004). Complete treatment of Devonian rocks, environment, and life-forms is given in David L. Dineley, Aspects of a Stratigraphic System: The Devonian (1984); M.R. House, C.T. Scrutton, and M.G. Bassett (eds.), The Devonian System: A Palaeontological Association International Symposium (1979); W.S. McKerrow and C.R. Scotese (eds.), Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (1990); N.J. McMillan, A.F. Embry, and D.J. Glass (eds.), Devonian of the World: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on the Devonian System, Calgary, Canada, 3 vol. (1988); and Otto H. Walliser (ed.), Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic (1996).The historic agreement to fix the boundary between the Silurian and Devonian systems at the Klonk site in the Czech Republic—the first practical application of the so-called “golden spike”—is found in Anders Martinsson, The Silurian-Devonian Boundary: Final Report of the Committee on the Silurian-Devonian Boundary Within IUGS Commission on Stratigraphy and a State of the Art Report for Project Ecostratigraphy (1977). The extinction event in the Late Devonian is treated in George R. McGhee, The Late Devonian Mass Extinction: The Frasnian-Famennian Crisis (1996).Michael R. House

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  • Devonian period — noun from 405 million to 345 million years ago; preponderance of fishes and appearance of amphibians and ammonites • Syn: ↑Devonian, ↑Age of Fishes • Instance Hypernyms: ↑period, ↑geological period • Part Holonyms: ↑Paleozoic, ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

  • Devonian — [di vō′nē ən] adj. 1. of Devon, England 2. [sometimes d ] designating or of the fourth geologic period of the Paleozoic Era, characterized by the development of the first ferns, mosses, gymnosperms, sharks, bony fishes, amphibians, and wingless… …   English World dictionary

  • Devonian — For the Celtic language, see Southwestern Brythonic language; for the residents of the English county, see Devon. Devonian Period 416–359.2 million years ago …   Wikipedia

  • period — /pear ee euhd/, n. 1. a rather large interval of time that is meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics: a period of illness; a period of great profitability for a company; a period of social… …   Universalium

  • Devonian — /deuh voh nee euhn/, adj. 1. Geol. noting or pertaining to a period of the Paleozoic Era, 405 to 345 million years ago, characterized by the dominance of fishes and the advent of amphibians and ammonites. See table under geologic time. 2. of or… …   Universalium

  • Devonian — 1. adjective a) of a geologic period within the Paleozoic era; comprises lower, middle and upper epochs from about 415 to 360 million years ago b) Of or pertaining to the English region of Devon. 2. noun …   Wiktionary

  • Devonian — De•vo•ni•an [[t]dəˈvoʊ ni ən[/t]] adj. 1) gel noting or pertaining to a period of the Paleozoic Era, 405 million to 345 million years ago, characterized by the dominance of fishes and the advent of amphibians and ammonites 2) of or pertaining to… …   From formal English to slang

  • Devonian — /dəˈvoʊniən / (say duh vohneeuhn) adjective 1. relating to a geological period or a system of rocks following the Silurian and preceding the Carboniferous. –noun 2. the Devonian period or system …  

  • Devonian — De*vo ni*an, a. (Geol.) Of or pertaining to Devon or Devonshire in England; as, the Devonian rocks, period, or system. [1913 Webster] {Devonian age} (Geol.), the age next older than the Carboniferous and later than the Silurian; called also the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Devonian age — Devonian De*vo ni*an, a. (Geol.) Of or pertaining to Devon or Devonshire in England; as, the Devonian rocks, period, or system. [1913 Webster] {Devonian age} (Geol.), the age next older than the Carboniferous and later than the Silurian; called… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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