Ichniotherium tracks with a relatively short pedal digit V (digit length ratio V/IV < 0.6) form the majority of yet described Late Carboniferous to Early Permian diadectomorph tracks and can be related to a certain diadectid clade with corresponding phalangeal reduction that includes Diadectes and its close relatives. Here we document the variation of digit proportions and trackway parameters i...

Manuscrito ID: 30163. Recebido em: 19/09/2014. Aprovado em: 19/09/2014. ABSTRACT: New lines of geological evidence strongly suggest that the main period of hydrocarbon maturation within Assistência Formation should be Permian-Triassic, stimulated by a high geothermal gradient that also sustained various manifestations of hydrothermal activity. Three main stages of fluid/hydrocarbon migration ca...

Rhythmic sandstone-mudstone-coal succession of the Barakar Formation (early Permian) manifests a transition from lower braided-fluvial to upper tide-wave influenced, estuarine setting. Monospecific assemblage of marine trace fossil Chondrites isp. in contemporaneous claystone beds in the upper Barakar succession from two Gondwana basins (namely, the Raniganj Basin and the Talchir Basin) in east...

The supercontinent Pangea dominated our planet from the Permian into the Jurassic. Paleomagnetic reconstructions have been used to estimate the latitudinal position of Pangea during this 100-million-year period. Atmospheric circulation, recorded by eolian sandstones in the southwestern United States, shows a broad sweep of northeasterly winds over their northernmost extent, curving to become no...

In addition to their devastating effects on global biodiversity, mass extinctions have had a long-term influence on the history of life by eliminating dominant lineages that suppressed ecological change. Here, we test whether the end-Permian mass extinction (252.3 Ma) affected the distribution of tetrapod faunas within the southern hemisphere and apply quantitative methods to analyze four compo...

The end-Permian mass extinction was the largest biotic crisis in the history of animal life, eliminating as many as 95% of all species and dramatically altering the ecological structure of marine communities. Although the causes of this pronounced ecosystem shift have been widely debated, the broad consensus based on inferences from global taxonomic diversity patterns suggests that the shift fr...

A sequence of Permian rocks crops out in Northwest of Khur in Central Alborz, North of Iran. This sequence consists of the Dorud (Asselian-Sakmarian), Ruteh (Artinskian-Murgabian) and Nesen (Early Djulfian) formations. The Ruteh and Nesen formations in Alborz Range were deposited in a shallow marine environment of the continental margin in the Paleo-Tethys. The Ruteh Formation with a thickness ...

Generally Early Triassic floras are believed to be depauperate, suffering from protracted recovery following the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Here we present palynological data of an expanded East Greenland section documenting recovered floras in the basal Triassic (Griesbachian) and a subsequent fundamental floral turnover, postdating the Permian-Triassic boundary extinction by about 500...

Stratigraphic and sedimentological data from New South Wales and Queensland, eastern Australia, indicate that the Late Paleozoic Ice Age comprised at least eight discrete glacial intervals (each 1–8 Ma in duration, here termed “glaciations”), separated by nonglacial intervals of comparable duration. These events spanned an interval from mid-Carboniferous (c. 327 Ma) to the early Late Permian (c...

Plant communities of the geologic past can be reconstructed with high fidelity only if they were preserved in place in an instant in time. Here we report such a flora from an early Permian (ca. 298 Ma) ash-fall tuff in Inner Mongolia, a time interval and area where such information is filling a large gap of knowledge. About 1,000 m(2) of forest growing on peat could be reconstructed based on th...