New occurrences of trimerophytes from the Devonian of eastern Canada

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Abstract
Pertica dalhousii n.sp. is described from the late Lower or early Middle Devonian of New Brunswick. The plant is known from a central axis with spirally arranged, mostly dichotomous lateral branches. Some lateral branches terminate in erect clusters of 32–128 fusiform sporangia. Spores are circular, trilete, with a detachable outer sculptured layer, and resemble the dispersed spore genus Apiculiretusispora Streel. A trimerophyte from Gaspé is described and provisionally designated as cf. Pertica sp.; the specimens are too incompletely preserved to be assigned to any established species, but they add further information about morphologic variation in the genus Pertica.With the addition of new plant types referable to the trimerophytes, distinctions between genera and species are becoming less readily apparent, supporting the suggestion that the trimerophytes are a group of closely related plants in which considerable evolution was occurring in late Lower and Middle Devonian times. Additionally, these plants appear to represent an early stage in the differentiation of a distinct main axis – lateral branch type of organizaiton that probably led to the later evolution of megaphyllous leaves.

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