Sub-arborescent lycophytes in coal-bearing strata from the artinskian (Early Permian/Cisuralian) of the Santa Catarina coalfield (Paraná Basin, SC, Brazil)

Abstract

In the modern flora, lycophytes are restricted to a few herbaceous forms. The fossil record of this group is significantly larger, with numerous herbaceous, but also arborescent representatives, the latter mostly reported from late Paleozoic biomes. An association of compressed caulinar fragments of horizontally layered, sub-arborescent lycophytes (preserved as fossil casts) coming from a clastic level which overlies the Bonito coal seam in the Bonito I mine in the Santa Catarina coalfield (Santa Catarina state, Brazil) is analyzed in this paper. The material was identified as Brasilodendron pedroanum (Carruthers) Chaloner, Leistikow & Hill, a taxon that has been described from several outcrops in the coal-bearing interval of the Paraná Basin (Sakmarian/Artinskian). The present study supports the interpretation that sub-arborescent lycophyte plants showing the Brasilodendron leaf-cushion type were an important component of the coastal peat forming paleofloristic associations during the Early Permian (Cisuralian) in the Paraná Basin and were important contributors to the original biomass of coals. © 2012 by the Sociedade Brasileira de Paleontologia.