It is now known that some supposedly Silurian plants are actually from the Early Devonian. The Late Silurian record of Cooksonia fossils of the Czech Republic seems to be the earliest unquestionable evidence of vascular plants. Information on spores provided by palynologists would help determine the antecedents of the Devonian plants.

There was a remarkable initiation of diverse types of vascular plants during the Devonian, and a varied flora was established early in the period. Evidence of algae is common; bryophytes first appear, and charophytes are locally common. Freshwater algae and fungi are known in the Rhynie Chert of Scotland. The first known forests are of late Middle Devonian age.

The Psylotophytopsida is the most primitive group of the pteridophytes (ferns and other seedless vascular plants); this group did not survive the Late Devonian. Cooksonia, Rhynia, and others possessing a naked stem with terminal sporangia (spore cases) belong here. In other members, sporangia were borne laterally but no true leaves were developed, and the branching was often of a primitive dichotomous type. Psylotophytopsids form a basic stock from which other groups apparently evolved. Asteroxylon, which occurs with Rhynia, and other Rhynie plants in the Lower Old Red Sandstone Rhynie Chert of Scotland form a link with the lycopsids by having lateral sporangia and a dense leafy stem. Psylotophytopsids soon gave rise to treelike forms and later to the important lepidodendrids of the Carboniferous flora. Another apparent derivative, the sphenopsids, which has jointed branches, is represented by Hyenia and Pseudobornia. Pteropsids also appeared in the Devonian. Primitive gymnosperms are known, and trunks of Archaeopteris up to 1.8 metres (6 feet) in diameter are present in Upper Devonian deposits of the eastern United States and the Donets Basin of Russia and Ukraine. These trunks apparently were carried by water to their current positions.

The rich record of land plants may be related to the fact that the Old Red Sandstone represents the first widespread record of continental conditions. However, the primitive nature of the stocks seen and the absence of a long earlier record, even of detrital fragments of vascular plants, suggest that the colonization and exploitation of land environments were real Devonian events. Fortuitous finds, such as the silicified flora of the Rhynie Chert and the pyritized tissue from the Upper Devonian of New York, have enabled the intimate anatomy of many of these plants to be elucidated in detail equivalent to that of modern forms.

Faunal realms and migrations

There is a marked similarity in the fauna and flora of the Devonian continental facies the world over. Records from such deposits in China containing Early Devonian genera of the armoured fish Cephalaspis and Pterichthys or the widespread Australian records of Bothriolepis, a Late Devonian antiarch, correspond closely to those of the Old Red Sandstone in Europe. Yet, when studied in more detail, specific differences become apparent. It has been suggested that the Baltic fish succession is so rich that the area must have formed a migration centre. This may be so, but the wide distribution of supposed estuarine and freshwater fishes raises many problems. Many of these can be resolved if the continents were closer together during the Devonian than at present.

The marine life of the Devonian gives little evidence of faunal provinces. It is true that in the Lower Devonian the brachiopod Australocoelia has been recognized only in the Antarctic, the Falkland Islands, South America, South Africa, and Tasmania and that Australospirifer, Scaphiocoelia, and Pleurothyrella share parts of this distribution. These genera are not known in the marine Lower Devonian of northern continents and seem to establish an “austral” fauna of limited circum-Antarctic distribution at this time (if the southern continents were then united as Gondwana). Elements of this fauna are often called “Malvinokaffric” after the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands and the South African Bokkeveld Beds. At other levels in the Devonian, however, provincial distinctions are not apparent, with the exception of local coral provinces that are distinguishable in areas of Asia.

Extinction events

Throughout the Devonian there were periods of widespread hypoxic or anoxic sedimentation (that is, sedimentary events indicated that little free oxygen or no oxygen at all was dissolved in Devonian seas). Some of these are known to be periods of significant extinction, and all are associated with some faunal anomaly in marine strata. These events are named according to the taxa involved. Some are associated with very wide distribution of certain taxa, such as the Monograptus uniformis, Pinacites jugleri, and Platyclymenia annulata events. The Lower Zlichov Event is associated with the extinction of the graptoloids and the appearance of the coiled cephalopod goniatites. Three events are very significant extinction episodes: the Taghanic Event, which formerly was used to draw the boundary between the Middle and Upper Devonian, was a marked period of extinction for goniatites, corals, and brachiopods; the Kellwasser Event saw the extinction of the beloceratid and manticoceratid goniatite groups, many conodont species, most colonial corals, several groups of trilobites, and the atrypid and pentamerid brachiopods at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary; and the Hangenberg Event saw the extinction of phacopid trilobites, several groups of goniatites, and the unusual late Devonian coiled cephalopods, the clymeniids, at the end of the Famennian Stage.

Earlier, certain writers sought to link these events with thin layers of iridium, characteristic of meteorite or bolide impacts. Evidence of a bolide impact, in the form of possible impact ejecta, has been reported in Middle Devonian deposits and is associated with a pulse of extinction. An impact crater about 65 km (about 40 miles) in diameter, the Siljan structure in Sweden, has been dated to approximately 377 million years ago. This places the impact in the middle of the Frasnian stage (about 372.2 million years ago) and also within the Kellwasser extinction. Nevertheless, the connection between this impact and the Kellwasser Event is still being debated.

A stronger environmental link to Devonian extinctions involves the layers of black shale characteristic of low oxygen conditions. Environmental stress is thought to take place when high global temperatures slow the mixing rate between the ocean’s surface and deeper layers. Bottom waters experience a lowered re-oxygenation rate, which may result in the extinction of many marine species. It is still debated whether these events were caused by climatic extremes caused by an increase in the amount of solar energy from the Sun, an amplified greenhouse effect, or by processes wholly confined to the Earth. For example, greater production of organic matter, perhaps owing to an increased influx of nutrients related to the colonization of landmasses by rooted plants, may have made continental seas more susceptible to anoxia.

There is also evidence that extinctions may be associated with rapid global warming or cooling. Particularly in the Late Devonian, extinction events may relate to periods of abrupt cooling associated with the development of glaciers and the substantial lowering of sea level. It has been argued that patterns of faunal change at the Kellwasser Event are consistent with global cooling.

At present it is not possible to connect Devonian extinctions definitively with any single cause, and, indeed, it is probable that extinctions may record a combination of several stresses.