Hepaticites iporangae n. sp., Rio Bonito Formation, Early Permian (Sakmarian), Paraná Basin, Brazil, Western Gondwana

Abstract

The formal description of a liverwort from the Paraná Basin is presented. The fossil was found in the Rio Bonito Formation, Early Permian (Sakmarian), and is identified as a new species of the genus Hepaticites, named H. iporangae n. sp. The samples studied were collected from the macrofossil-rich roof-shale layer of the Quitéria Outcrop in the municipality of Encruzilhada do Sul, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. H. iporangae is one of the oldest liverworts reported from South America. The fossil described here provides more evidence of the relative diversity of liverworts in Paleozoic Gondwana despite the severe climatic conditions during the glaciations of the Permo-Carboniferous.

Hepaticites iporangae Ricardi-Branco, Faria, Jasper, and Guerra-Sommer, 2011 from the early Permian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil, is not a liverwort but a tracheophyte

“…In addition, we provided two figures (Figs. 4, 5) already figured in Ricardi-Branco et al (2011) as visual support for our reinterpretation.

Figure 3 Schematic sketch of a frond fragment of ‘ Rhodeopteridium ’ iporangae n. comb. to clarify the descriptive terms used here (based on MCNPbU 254; Fig.

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“…This study was based on the original material of Hepaticites iporangae by Ricardi-Branco et al (2011) as well as new material collected from the type horizon and locality, the Quitéria outcrop in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.…”

“…The Quitéria outcrop, located in the municipality of Encruzilhada do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, is one of the most important sources of information about vegetation from wet biomes in the early Permian Rio Bonito Formation in the southern part of the Paraná Basin (e.g., Jasper et al, 2006, 2008; Guerra-Sommer et al, 2008; Boardman et al, 2012). Several taxonomical studies dealing with lycophytes (Jasper and Guerra-Sommer, 1999; Salvi et al, 2008), conifers (Jasper et al, 2005), glossopterids (Boardman et al, 2006), and the putative liverwort Hepaticites iporangae Ricardi-Branco, Faria, Jasper, and Guerra-Sommer, 2011 (Ricardi-Branco et al, 2011) have been carried out in the past two decades at this locality. The latter finding has been regarded as being of significant importance for the diversity of liverworts (Ricardi-Branco et al, 2011) as Paleozoic records of this group are rather scarce, especially in Gondwana (Pant and Bhowmik, 1998).…”

“…Several taxonomical studies dealing with lycophytes (Jasper and Guerra-Sommer, 1999; Salvi et al, 2008), conifers (Jasper et al, 2005), glossopterids (Boardman et al, 2006), and the putative liverwort Hepaticites iporangae Ricardi-Branco, Faria, Jasper, and Guerra-Sommer, 2011 (Ricardi-Branco et al, 2011) have been carried out in the past two decades at this locality. The latter finding has been regarded as being of significant importance for the diversity of liverworts (Ricardi-Branco et al, 2011) as Paleozoic records of this group are rather scarce, especially in Gondwana (Pant and Bhowmik, 1998).…”

“…However, recent discoveries of larger and more complete specimens from its type locality, partly with casts of tracheid remains in situ at the position of the assumed midrib (sensu Ricardi-Branco et al, 2011), question the taxonomic position of these remains, as well as the interpretations of these findings as remains of liverworts. Here we present an analysis of the new findings, together with a reanalysis of the type material of Hepaticites iporangae , demonstrating that it is in fact a tracheophyte and that it can best be compared to the genus Rhodeopteridium Zimmermann, 1959, of uncertain systematic position, although an unequivocal assignment to this taxon is not possible at the moment.…”