Upper Triassic Palaeobotany of Biobío river valley, Chile: Filicopsida Class.

Abstract

 The Upper Triassic (Carnian-Norian) Filicopsida fossils present in the marine and continental outcrops, informally nominated as Santa Juana formation in the Biobío Region of Chile (37ºS/73ºS), are described. The taphoflora includes ten species, out of which eight are first registers for this area: Gleichenites quilacoyensis Leppe and Moisan sp. nov., Asterotheca rigbyana rigbyana Herbst, Rienitsia colliveri Herbst, Dictyophyllum fuenzalidai Herbst, Dictyophyllum (Thaumatopteris) rothi Frenguelli, Chansitheca argentina Herbst, Cladophlebis kurtzi Frenguelli and Todites baldoni Herbst ; three are new records for the Chilean Upper Triassic: Rienitsia colliveri Herbst, Gleichenites quilacoyensis Leppe and Moisan sp. nov., and Chansitheca argentina Herbst. The fern species found represents an 18% of the total specific diversity of plants in the Upper Triassic rocks from Biobío and help to understand the complicate floristic evolution of the communities in Gondwana. The Triassic rocks from Biobío are situated in the context of the Southwestern Extratropical Gondwana. The assemblage was developed in a continental environment with strong marine influence, under a rainy seasonal weather and displays age affinities with the argentinian Florian stage (Norian-Rhaetian). On an evolutionary point of view, the paleoflora was involved into the long Triassic/Jurassic mass extinction process, that means the end of the 'Dicroidium Flora' and the start of several elements that will dominate during the Jurassic.