XVI International Botanical Congess

Pangea was beginning to form during the Devonian and Early Carboniferous. The bulk of North America, northern Europe and European Russia, South China, and the Australian part of Gondwana were located in tropical and subtropical latitudes. Siberia and the South American and African parts of Gondwana were in temperate latitudes. The position of Gondwana relative to North America/Europe set up potential monsoonal circulation patterns in Proto-Tethys, possibly making the climate in the deep tropics of North America and Europe more savannah-like than everwet tropical. An interesting test of these ideas could come from analysis of growth patterns of the trunks of Archaeopteris.