Vegetation history across the Permian–Triassic boundary in Pakistan (Amb section, Salt Range)

Severest crisis overlooked—Worst disruption of terrestrial environments postdates the Permian–Triassic mass extinction

“…The record of Early Triassic plant macrofossils is extremely poor and mostly uncalibrated; however, palynological records adequately reflect floral changes during mass extinctions and the subsequent recovery phases222325. For the PTME some spectacular scenarios have been inferred from relatively few records, e.g., total extinction50 totally devastated environments unsuited for plants12495152, plant mutagenesis due to ozone layer destruction10, and collapse of terrestrial ecosystems related to a fungal event4952.…”

“…Numerous palynological studies of the Late Permian contain relatively rich assemblages whereas the overlying Triassic sections appear impoverished or consist of a few samples only125557585960 and therefore emphasise the impression of an impoverished Early Triassic flora. A few well calibrated quantitative palynological records exist for the basal Triassic of the Barents Sea area as well as for the classical Early Triassic sections in the Salt Range and the Surghar Range in Pakistan, and based on recent radiometric age datings, for the Bowen Basin (eastern Australia)232425373940. Calibration of the so far poorly constrained Australian Permian–Triassic palynostratigraphic succession shows that the most important floral turnover, associated with the extinction of the glossopterids, happened not at the Permian–Triassic boundary but within the Induan.…”

“…However, Schneebeli-Hermann et al 25. documented a coeval succession from the Salt Range (Pakistan).…”

“…These ideas concurred with the commonly hawked hypothesis that Early Triassic biotas reflect a protracted recovery after the PTME. Recent studies, however, show a more complex picture of the development of the biosphere and climate during this time, providing evidence for significant climatic changes15 as well as for profound faunal and floral turnovers16171819202122232425. New evidence suggest that not all marine organisms were similarly affected by the PTME.…”

Resolving the age of Madumabisa fossil vertebrates: Palynological evidence from the mid-Zambezi Basin of Zambia

“…The biostratigraphic correlations inferred from these data and the temporal relationships of the assemblages can be found in Figure 2. Zone in Australia (Foster, 1982), the Chhidru 1 Assemblage of the Salt Range, Pakistan (Hermann et al, 2012) of late Changhsingian age (Schneebeli-Hermann et al, 2015) and the Vittatina costabilis and Lueckisporites virkkiae zones of the Paraná Basin, Brazil, dated as Asselian to middle Artinskian, and middle Artinskian to Roadian respectively . These South American biozones are much older than other proposed correlatives of the upper Madumabisa Formation palynoassemblage, which are all Lopingian, and the Madumabisa tetrapod assemblages provide very strong evidence that this formation cannot be Cisuralian or Roadian (e.g., Angielczyk et al, 2014).…”