Wild¢res in the Late Palaeozoic of Central Europe ^ The Zechstein (Upper Permian) of NW-Hesse (Germany) Dieter Uhl à , Hans Kerp Forschungsstelle fu «r Pala «obotanik, Westfa «lische Wilhelms-Universita «t, Hindenburgplatz 57, 48143 Mu «nster, Germany Received 23 December 2002; accepted 27 May 2003 Abstract Fossil charcoal, as the direct evidence of wildfires, is present in most of the plant-bearing deposits from the Central European Zechstein (Upper Permian). The charcoal content of Upper Permian sediments collected at the locality Frankenberg^Geismar (NW-Hesse, Germany) is allochthonous and the shape of the fragments, and the rounded edges, indicate transport over relatively long distances. Charcoalified conifer needles are very rare and usually highly fragmented. The anatomical diversity of charred wood is higher than that of the permineralised woods fromtheZechsteinthathavebeendescribedpreviously.Itisnotyetclearwhetherthisrepresentsahigherdiversityof naturaltaxaoranatomicalydifferentpartsbelongingtoonlyafewtaxa.Untilnow,virtuallynothingisknownabout the fire ecology of Late Palaeozoic, conifer-dominated, upland vegetation. The presence of charcoal indicates that these vegetation, which grew under mesic to xeric conditions, may have experienced more or less regular wildfires. WildfiresmayhavebeenrelativelyfrequentduringtheLatePermian,ascomparedtoclimaticallycomparablemodern ecosystems. ß 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: charcoal; wild¢re; anatomy; oxygen levels; Upper Permian 1. Introduction Today, ¢re is a natural part of many terrestrial ecosystems throughout the world. In ecosystems that are characterised by a well-marked dry sea- son, wild¢res occur regularly and in the most ¢re- prone vegetation today ¢res may occur annually (e.g. Brown, 2000; Paysen et al., 2000). Even when the vegetation is normally too wet to burn, as in tropical rainforests, occasional wild- ¢res may occur after severe droughts (e.g. John- son, 1984). The interactions between wild¢res and vegetation are numerous and it has been argued by Pyne (1982) that ¢re has shaped the terrestrial vegetation ever since vegetation and lightning, as the most important natural source of ignition, have existed on Earth. It is now widely accepted that fusain (sensu Scott, 1989, 2000) represents fossil charcoal, which has been produced by wild¢res during past episodes of Earth’s history (e.g. Harris, 1958; Scott, 1989, 2000). The occurrence of this charcoal can therefore be regarded as direct evi- 0031-0182/03/$ ^ see front matter ß 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0031-0182(03)00482-6 * Corresponding author. Present address: Institut fu «rGeo- wissenschaften, Eberhard-Karls-Universita «tTu «bingen, Sig- wartstrasse 10, 72076 Tu «bingen, Germany. E-mail address: dieter.uhl@uni-tuebingen.de (D. Uhl). PALAEO 3167 9-9-03 Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 199 (2003) 1^15 www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo