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Upper Silurian miospores from the Precordillera Basin, Argentina: biostratigraphic, palaeonvironmental and palaeogeographic implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2013

V. J. GARCÍA MURO ,
C. V. RUBINSTEIN  and
P. STEEMANS
V. J. GARCÍA MURO*
Affiliation:
IANIGLA-CCT CONICET-Mendoza, C.C. 131, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina
C. V. RUBINSTEIN
Affiliation:
IANIGLA-CCT CONICET-Mendoza, C.C. 131, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina
P. STEEMANS
Affiliation:
Palaeogeobiology – Palaeobotany – Palaeopalynology, Allée du 6 Août, Bât. B-18, parking 40, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège 1, Belgium
*
†Author for correspondence: vgarcia@mendoza-conicet.gob.ar
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Abstract

This study is concentrated on Ludlow (to Pridoli?) miospores from the Los Espejos Formation at the Quebrada Ancha locality, Central Precordillera, San Juan Province, Argentina. The Ludlow age is in agreement with the age based on acritarchs. The assemblage of continental palynomorphs is composed of 43 miospore species (29 trilete spores and 14 cryptospores). A new synonymy is proposed: Chelinospora poecilomorpha is here considered a junior synonym of Clivosispora verrucata. In addition, specimens belonging to C. verrucata var. verrucata and C. verrucata var. convoluta are included in a new morphon. This study represents the second Late Silurian miospore assemblage described from South America; the first was from the Urubu River, Amazon Basin, northern Brazil. The Quebrada Ancha assemblages allow a reasonably good correlation with biozones established for the Upper Silurian from the Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain. The dendrogram analysis between coeval miospore assemblages from different localities shows a strong palaeogeographic affinity with the miospores recovered from northern Brazil and North Africa. Miospore assemblages from Spain show influences from Baltica and North Africa, demonstrating their intermediate position between these two continental plates. Conversely, dissimilarities recognized between Libya and Tunisia are most probably owing to local ecology and/or environmental conditions.

Keywords

trilete sporescryptosporestaxonomyPalaeozoicpalynostratigraphypalaeobiogeographypalaeoenvironments
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 151 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 472 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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