Palaeos Earth: Geography: Euramerica

Palæos:		Continents
GEOGRAPHY		Euramerica

Euramerica

aka Laurussia aka "Old Red Continent"

The Devonian continent of Euramerica formed by the collision of Baltica and Laurentia. The Caledonian orogeny marks the suture between the two. (illustration from D.L. Dineley and E.J. Loeffler, 1993, "Biostratigraphy of the Silurian and Devonian Gnathostomes of the Euramerica Province," in John A. Long, ed., Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, p.106, after Ziegler, P.A. 1988, Laurussia - The Old Red Continent. In N.J.McMillan, A.F.Embry, and D.J. Glass (eds.) Devonian of the World, Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 14, I: 15-48.

Euramerica, also known as Laurussia, was an ancient, mostly Late Silurian and Devonian, continent incorporating what is now North America, Greenland, and Europe. It is also known as the "Old Red Continent" because of the distinct oxidized deposits left in Laurussia. This great supercontinent had its own unique fauna, including many species of armoured fish not found elsewhere.

Pterichthyodes - an Antiarch placoderm
(armoured fish) endemic to Euramerica
Givetian age - length 15 cm

Name: Euramerica
Status: Major Continent (Paleozoic)
Duration: Silurian to Carboniferous
Included the present-day North America, Greenland, and Europe
Formed by: suturing of Laurentia and Baltica
Collided with: Gondwana to form Pangea
Indigenous biota: Unique fauna of armoured fish (Agnatha and Placoderms) in marginal marine environments. Distinctive land plants

References (Vertebrate Biogeography)

P. Janvier and A. Blieck, 1993, "The Silurian-Devonian Agnathan Biostratigraphy of the Old Red Continent," in John A. Long, ed., Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp.70-73

D.L. Dineley and E.J. Loeffler, 1993, "Biostratigraphy of the Silurian and Devonian Gnathostomes of the Euramerica Province," in John A. Long, ed., Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, p.106, after Ziegler, 1988).

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