The fossil record contains abundant evidence for the activity of microorganisms in the form of characteristic decay structures within fossil plant remains. Despite an abundance of charcoal in many sedimentary environments, there is little published evidence of such decay structures within charcoal from pre-Quaternary clastic deposits. The present contribution presents some examples of pre-Quaternary charcoal from clastic sediments which exhibit pre-charring decay structures, stratigraphically reaching from the Permian up to the Oligocene. Examples include specimens affected by the principle types of wood rot known from modern ecosystems (i.e. brown-rot, white rot and soft-rot) as well as a peculiar decay pattern resembling an atypical type of white-rot, which is only rarely known from modern wood. Theoretically there are different, so far hypothetical, scenarios which could be used to explain the scarcity of published reports on such material. Besides taphonomical biases directly influencing the sedimentary record of charcoal towards material not affected by microbial decay, it is conceivable that the lack of reports of such material from pre-Quaternary clastic deposits represents a, maybe unintentional, bias introduced by scientists working on pre-Quaternary charcoal.
A presenca de carvao vegetal macroscopico (charcoal) no registro fossil oferece a perspectiva de uma gama variada de avaliacoes sobre o contexto paleoambiental que originou este tipo de deposito. Entre suas aplicacoes estao aspectos que tem envolvido a pesquisa geologica e paleontologica nos ultimos anos, tais como as variacoes do teor de oxigenio na atmosfera e a associacao da vegetacao a contextos pirogenicos. No presente trabalho foi realizada a avaliacao da presenca de carvao vegetal macroscopico (charcoal) em depositos do final do Cretaceo na Peninsula Antartica cuja genese, em um contexto tectonico de ante-arco, resultou em uma deposicao eminentemente vulcânica. Parte do material aqui estudado provem das coletas realizadas pelo Programa Antartico Brasileiro nas ilhas King George e Nelson, estando armazenado no Laboratorio de Historia da Vida e da Terra (LaViGea), da Universidade do Vale do Rio do Sinos – UNISINOS, parte foi cedida pelo Instituto Antartico Chileno (INACH), e provem da ilha Livingston. As amostras foram analisadas sob estereomicroscopio, buscando a presenca de fragmentos que denunciassem a ocorrencia de elementos carbonizados. Estes foram retirados mecanicamente do sedimento e analisados sob Microscopio Eletronico de Varredura (MEV). As analises permitiram a definicao das caracteristicas morfoanatomicas preservadas nos fragmentos vegetais e a avaliacao da dinâmica dos paleoincendios. Duas localidades mostraram a presenca de restos carbonizados, uma delas no sudoeste da ilha King George (Pontal Price) e a outra na area norte da ilha Nelson (Pontal Rip). A analise demostrou que os fragmentos vegetais carbonizados apresentam estruturas celulares preservadas, a presenca de raios transversais simples e pontoacoes uniseriadas permitem relacionar o material a Gimnospermas. A fusao das paredes celulares dos traqueideos, com claras marcas de ruptura das estruturas permitem inferir temperaturas entre 340°C e 600 °C. Tendo em conta o contexto proximal do edificio vulcânico, inferido a partir das litologias associadas, uma vinculacao tafonomica a queda de cinzas ainda aquecidas e aqui proposta para a queima e preservacao dos restos.
Abstract From new and more complete material, which includes frond fragments with casts of tracheid remains of the rachis, it can be demonstrated that the putative liverwort Hepaticites iporangae Ricardi-Branco, Faria, Jasper, and Guerra-Sommer, 2011, from the early Permian Rio Bonito Formation (Sakmarian) of the Paraná Basin, Brazil, is not a bryophyte but a tracheophyte. The new material was collected from the same locality and layer as the type material, in the Quitéria outcrop in the municipality of Encruzilhada do Sul, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. From the morphology of the deeply dissected pinnatifid pinnules with narrow laminar lobes, the taxon is provisionally reassigned to the genus Rhodeopteridium . Thus we propose the new combination ‘ Rhodeopteridium ’ iporangae new combination for this taxon. This new systematic interpretation contributes to our understanding of early liverworts (by removing Hepaticites iporangae as a possible taxon thereof) and clarifies an issue of diversity of the flora of the early Permian Rio Bonito Formation resulting from the original misidentification.
Abstract Fossil plants, including large trunks, stems, some branches, and twigs, were collected from the Maastrichtian (68.9 Ma), upper Dorotea Formation in the Magallanes–Austral Basin, 16 km north of the Cerro Guido–Las Chinas complex in the southern Chilean Magallanes region. These fossil trunks range from 0.2 to 2.2 m in length. Petrographic slides were made in three sections (transverse, radial and tangential) and analysed under a light microscope to study the permineralized fossils. The woods and stems belong to Austroginkgoxylon gen. et sp. nov., Agathoxylon antarcticum , Podocarpoxylon paradoxi sp. nov., Podocarpoxylon mazzonii , Palmoxylon subantarcticae and Notomalvaceoxylon magallanense gen. et sp. nov. The growth rings of gymnosperms and anatomical characters of angiosperms were analysed to obtain palaeoecological data. Interactions between gymnosperm roots growing into the secondary xylem of an angiosperm (nurse logs) are recorded. The data obtained from the fossil woods suggest warm and humid conditions in this southern South American locality during the Late Cretaceous, providing a unique opportunity to study continental environments at high southern latitudes, which are poorly represented on a global scale.