Some Early Mesozoic Plants from the Tanganyika Territory

Abstract

The specimens described in the following pages were submitted to me for examination by Mr. F. R. Parrington, who obtained them “from the hard fine-grained flags in the bed of the Msimbasi River between the junction of a tributary called the Katkindu and the site where reptile remains (? Tangasaurus menneli) were collected about half a mile above the junction, approximately 4° 55′ S. lat.; 38° 57′ long.” (Sketch-map, I.) Though the material is for the most part fragmentary, it is a welcome addition to the palaeobotanical records from tropical Africa. The plants are from the region where Dr. E. O. Teale made a collection, which was described twelve years ago. Specimens from the same district and from beds of the same geological age had previously been described by Potonie. Teale assigned the plant-beds to the middle division of the Tanga series of the Karroo system and Potonié regarded the beds at his “Fundort V”, which corresponds to Mr. Parrington’s locality (sketch-map, I) as Rhaetic-Jura (?). My conclusion was that the plants indicated a Triassic or Rhaetic age. The additional fossils which Mr. Parrington kindly handed to me, though they cannot be said definitely to settle the age of the beds, indicate an Upper Triassic horizon.