Are There Restrictions Related to the Presence of Land Plants for Reconstructing Rivers of Different Categories?

The article analyzes the distribution of datapoints of individual and averaged mudstones samples from almost 40 sedimentary successions of the Neoproterozoic–Ordovician (epoch lacking land plants) and the Devonian–Holocene (time of the appearance and abundance of land plants—“green epoch”) in the (La/Yb)_N–Eu/Eu*, (La/Yb)_N–(Eu/Sm)_N, and (La/Yb)_N–Th diagrams with classification fields of the silty–pelitic particulate matter in the estuary of different-category modern rivers. No fundamental differences between the “green epoch” and pre-Silurian rivers were revealed. In combination with other data, the above fact suggests the following conclusion: since the terrestrial vegetation is absent (and not only in the Neoproterozoic–Ordovician), the categories of rivers, which drained different (in area and composition) catchment areas and transported the fine-grained particulate material to the shelf zones were not fundamentally different from those at present.