Granja palmeiras, a new fossiliferous site for the lower Triassic of Southern Brazil

Abstract

A new fossiliferous locality, Granja Palmeiras, is described for the Sanga do Cabral Formation (Lower Triassic of Southern Brazil, Rosário do Sul Group, Paraná Basin). It consists on orange and reddish fine sandstones, with sandy and calcareous concretions and intercalated fossiliferous intraformational conglomerates. Its fossils are fragmentary and badly preserved. Nevertheless, among the 46 specimens collected so far, putative actinopterygians, temnospondyls, procolophonoids, archosauromorphs, and non-mammalian cynodonts were identified. Besides, several non-diagnostic appendicular elements are ascribed to Tetrapoda indet. The fossiliferous content found in Granja Palmeiras can provide a valuable new framework for future correlation with other Lower Triassic South American units as well as other continental tetrapod-bearing deposits from Gondwana. © 2011 by the Sociedade Brasileira de Paleontologia.