位于非洲北部的撒哈拉大沙漠是世界上最大的沙漠，总面积940多万平方公里，约占非洲总面积1/3，差不多与中国国土面积相当。台湾已故女作家三毛和她《撒哈拉的故事》使许多人对撒哈拉产生好奇和向往。

   产自撒哈拉大沙漠的植物化石无言无声，但向世人展示它在地质历史时期生态环境之巨变。

(1) The Sahara

The Sahara (Arabic: الصحراءالكبرى‎, aṣ-Ṣaḥrāʾ al-Kubrā, 'the Great Desert') is the largest subtropicalhot desertand third largest desertafter Antarcticaand the Arctic.^[1]At over 9,400,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it covers mostof North Africa,and is nearly the area of Chinaor the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Seain the east, including parts of the Mediterranean,to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. To the south, it is delimited bythe Sahel, abelt of semi-arid tropicalsavanna that composes the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of the sand dunescan reach 180 metres (590 ft) in height.^[2]The name comes from the plural Arabic languageword for desert (صحارىṣaḥārā^[3][4][ˈsˤɑħɑːrɑː]).^[5][6]

Fig.1. The major topographic features of the Saharan region.

Fig.2. Tadrart Acacusdesert in western Libya,part of the Sahara. [Photo credit: This Photo was taken by LucaG.  Luca Galuzzi -www.galuzzi.it ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara

(2) Carboniferous plant imprints in the Western Desert (Egypt/Sudan) (Jebel Uweinat, Gilf Kebir and surrounding

The most inclusive results up to now of found plant remains from field works1977 - 1984 in the region of Jebel Uweinat and Gilf Kebir were published byKLITZSCH and LEJAL-NICOL in two articles.

KLITZSCH, E. & LEJAL-NICOL,A. (1984) : Flora and fauna from strata in southern Egypt and northern Sudan
(Nubia and surrounding areas). Berliner geowiss. Abh., (A) 50, p.47-79.

LEJAL-NICOL, A. (1987) : Flores nouvelles du Paleozoique et du Mesozoique D’Egypte et du Soudan septentrional.
Berliner geowiss. Abh., (A) 75.1,p. 151-248.

Fig. 3. Up to now known locations of Carboniferous  strata and with plant imprints

http://www.b14643.de/Sahara/Fossil-Plants/Locations_big.jpg

Fig.4. 新芦木化石-Ursula Steiner in 2013 found specimens of ferruginous Neocalamites

Fig.5. 科达类茎干化石Cordaites stalks

http://www.b14643.de/Sahara/Fossil-Plants/

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古植物学的故事305期[总第306期]      

Story of Palaeobotany Series (No.305) [The 306th issue in total]

Palaeobotany Safari to  Africa非洲撒哈拉大沙漠的古植物学

Palaeobotanical studies in the Sahara deserts

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-225931-866441.html

2015-2-7 23:43