The Lower Devonian plant- and arthropod-bearing cherts of the Rhynie area of Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland, were deposited from silica-rich waters emanating from the hot-springs of a precious-metal (Au) bearing epithermal system. Cherts were deposited at temperatures up to 100°C. The hot-springs were active in the waning phase of local volcanism and reworked volcanic debris is associated with the hot-spring system. Plant and animal communities inhabited a low energy alluvial plain with small ponds. Hot-springs deposited surficial sinter and silicified standing plants and underlying plant litter in a generally terrestrial setting, but aquatic organisms were present in low temperature pools within areas of sinter deposition. Silicification also affected plants and sediment in the shallow subsurface. The cherts display massive, vuggy, laminated, lenticular, nodular and brecciated textures in laterally impersistent beds. Faunal and floral variation between beds is of local significance, possibly reflecting general water availability. Variations in preservation of plants reflect not only degrees of imperfection in the permineralisation process, but also silicification at different times in the cycle of plant growth and decay.

The Stephanian Konservat-Lagerstätte of Hamilton, Kansas, deposited in a marine-estuarine environment preserves a mixture of terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine fossil organisms. The marine component is the most diverse taxonomically, whereas one ostracod species, commonly interpreted as a fresh-water form, together with vascular plant debris dominates volumetrically. Well-preserved terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates and arthropods were embedded in rapidly deposited calcareous mud conducive to microbial early-diagenesis of vertebrate soft tissues in a tidal estuarine setting. Many vertebrate fossils show no evidence of preburial decay or disarticulation. Dark-coloured body silhouettes (‘skin preservation’) are composed of calcitic bacteria, calcite crystals and organic material, and have been interpreted to reflect preservation under saline conditions. The aquatic vertebrates had a broader tolerance of salinity than today. The fishes were perhaps migratory (anadromous or catadromous), and some used the estuarine environment for spawning. The tetrapods (dissorophid amphibians) retained their tolerance to salinity from their marine ancestors and were able to spawn in near-shore environments. The terrestrial biota was dominated by the conifer Walchia and was subjected to forest fires, as evidenced by preserved charcoal fragments.

A laminated, partly peloidal lacustrine limestone from the Lower Permian intermontane Döhlen basin in Saxony, Germany, contains one of the most diverse late Palaeozoic tetrapod faunas in Europe associated with a marine higher algal flora of Tethyan character. The surprising co-occurrence of these organisms and the lack of fishes is explained by the special position of this basin above the Elbe lineament, the influence of strong volcanism, of differentiated salinity in the lake and of the palaeowind systems, as well as by the action of stratigraphic, palaeogeographic and palaeoecological filters.