Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T16:09:54.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albanesi, G. L., Ortega, G. & Hünicken, M. A. 2006. Bioestratigrafía de conodontes y graptolitos silúricos en la sierra de Talacasto, Precordillera de San Juan, Argentina. Ameghiniana 43, 93–112.Google Scholar
Aldridge, R. J. & Schönlaub, H. P. 1989. Conodonts. In A Global Standard for the Silurian System (eds Holland, C. H. & Bassett, M. G.), pp. 274–9. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales Geological Series no. 9.Google Scholar
Astini, R. A., Benedetto, J. L. & Vaccari, N. E. 1995. The Early Paleozoic evolution of the Argentine Precordillera as a Laurentian rifted, drifted and collided terrane: a geodynamic model. Geological Society of America Bulletin 107, 253–73.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astini, R. A. & Maretto, H. M. 1996. Análisis estratigráfico del Silúrico de la Precordillera Central de San Juan y consideraciones sobre la evolución de la cuenca. 13° Congreso Geológico Argentino and 2° Congreso de Exploración de Hidrocarburos. Actas 1, pp. 351–68.Google Scholar
Beck, J. H., & Strother, P. K. 2001. Silurian spores and cryptospores from the Arisaig Group, Nova Scotia, Canada. Palynology 25, 127–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedetto, J. L. 2010. El Continente de Gondwana a Través del Tiempo. Una Introducción a la Geología Histórica. Córdoba: Academia Nacional de Ciencias, 384 pp.Google Scholar
Benedetto, J. L., Racheboeuf, P. R., Herrera, Z. A., Brussa, E. D. & Toro, B. A. 1992. Brachiopodes et biostratigraphie de la Formation de Los Espejos, Siluro-Dévonien de la Précordillère (NW Argentine). Geobios 25, 599–637.Google Scholar
Breuer, P., Al-Ghazi, A., Al-Ruwaili, M., Higgs, K. T., Steemans, P. & Wellman, C. H. 2007. Early to Middle Devonian miospores from northern Saudi Arabia. Revue de Micropaléontologie 50, 27–57.Google Scholar
Breuer, P. & Steemans, P. 2013. Devonian spore assemblages from northwestern Gondwana: taxonomy and biostratigraphy. Special Papers in Palaeontology 89, 163 pp.Google Scholar
Burgess, N. D. 1991. Silurian cryptospores and miospores from the type Llandovery area, south west Wales. Palaeontology 34, 575–99.Google Scholar
Burgess, N. D. & Richardson, J. B. 1991. Silurian cryptospores and miospores from the type Wenlock area, Shropshire, England. Palaeontology 34, 601–28.Google Scholar
Burgess, N. D. & Richardson, J. B. 1995. Late Wenlock to early Přídolí cryptospores and miospores from south and southwest Wales, Great Britain. Palaeontographica B 236, 1–44.Google Scholar
Cramer, F. H. 1967. Chitinozoans of composite section of Upper Llandoverian to basal Lower Gedinnian sediments in northern León, Spain. A preliminary report. Bulletin de la Société Belge de Géologie 75, 69–129.Google Scholar
Cramer, F. H. & Diez, M. del C. R. 1975. Earliest Devonian miospores from the province of León, Spain. Pollen et Spores 17, 331–44.Google Scholar
Cuerda, A. 1969. Sobre las graptofaunas del Silúrico de San Juan, Argentina. Ameghiniana 22, 233–41.Google Scholar
Eisenack, A. 1934. Neue Mikrofossilien des baltischen Silurs III und neue Mikrofossilien des böhmischen Silurs I. Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 16 (1–2), 52–76.Google Scholar
Eisenack, A., Cramer, F. H. & Díez, M. del C. R. 1976. Katalog der fossilen Dinoflagellaten, Hystrichosphären und verwandten Mikrofossilien. Band IV Acritarcha 2. Teil. E. Stuttgart: Schweizertbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 863 pp.Google Scholar
Gao, L. 1981. Devonian spore assemblages of China. Review of Palaeobotany Palynology 34, 11–23.Google Scholar
Hassan Kermandji, A. M. H. 2007. Silurian-Devonian miospores from the western and central Algeria. Revue de Micropaléontologie 50, 109–28.Google Scholar
Hünicken, M. A. & Sarmiento, G. N. 1988. Conodontes Ludlovianos de la Formación Los Espejos, Talacasto, provincia de San Juan, R. Argentina. 4º Congreso Argentino de Paleontología y Bioestratigrafía (Mendoza). Actas 3, pp. 225–33.Google Scholar
Jaglin, J. C. & Paris, F. 2002. Biostratigraphy, biodiversity and palaeogeography of Late Silurian chitinozoans from A1–61 borehole (north-western Libya). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 118, 335–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansonius, J. J. & Hills, L. V. 1979. Genera file of fossil spores, supplement. Special Publication, Department of Geology, University of Calgary. Calgary: University of Calgary.Google Scholar
Laufeld, S. 1974. Silurian Chitinozoa from Gotland. Fossils and Strata 5, 1–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loboziak, S., Steemans, P., Streel, M. & Vachard, D. 1992. Biostratigraphie par miospores du Dévonien inférieur à supérieur du sondage MG-1 (Bassin d'Hammadah, Tunisie). Comparaison avec les données des faunes. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 74, 193–205.Google Scholar
Loeblich, A. Jr. & Drugg, W. 1968. New acritarchs from the Early Devonian (Late Gedinnian) Haragan Formation of Oklahoma, U.S.A. Tulane Studies in Geology 6, 129–37.Google Scholar
McGregor, D. C. 1973. Lower and Middle Devonian spores of Eastern Gaspé, Canada. Palaeontographica Abteilung B 142, 1–77.Google Scholar
McGregor, D. C. & Camfield, M. 1976. Upper Silurian? to Middle Devonian spores of the Moose River Basin, Ontario. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 263, 1–63.Google Scholar
Mehlqvist, K., Vajda, V. & Steemans, P. 2012. Early land plant spore assemblages from the Late Silurian of Skåne, Sweden. GFF 134, 133–44.Google Scholar
Miller, C. G. 1995. Ostracode and conodont distribution across the Ludlow/Přídolí boundary of Wales and the Welsh Borderland. Palaeontology 38, 341–84.Google Scholar
Naumova, S. N. 1953. Spore-pollen complexes of the Upper Devonian of the Russian Platform and their stratigraphic significance. Trudy Geologicheskogo Institut, Akademiia Nauk SSSR 43, 1–204.Google Scholar
Nestor, V. 2009. Biostratigraphy of the Ludlow chitinozoans from East Baltic drill cores. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 58, 170–84.Google Scholar
Playford, G. 1977. Lower to Middle Devonian acritarchs of the moose River Basin, Ontario. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 279, 1–87.Google Scholar
Pöthe de Baldis, D. 1981. Paleomicroplancton y mioesporas del Ludloviano Inferior de la Formación Los Espejos en el perfil Los Azulejitos, en la Provincia de San Juan, República Argentina. Revista Española de Micropaleontología 13, 231–65.Google Scholar
Priewalder, H. 1997. SEM-revision of a chitinozoan assemblage from the Uppermost San Pedro Formation (Přídolí), Cantabrian Mountains (Spain). Jahrbuch der Geologischen Bundesanstalt – A 140 (1), 73–93.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. B. & Edwards, D. 1989. Sporomorphs and plant megafossils. In A Global Standard for the Silurian System (eds Holland, C. H. & Bassett, M. G.), pp. 216–26. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales Geological Series no. 9.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. B. & Ioannides, N. S. 1973. Silurian palynomorphs from the Tanezzuft and Acacus formations, Tripolitania, North Africa. Micropaleontology 19, 257–307.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. B. & Ioannides, N. S. 1979. Emphanispoirites splendens, a new name for Emphanisporites pseudoerraticus Richardson & Ioannides, 1973 (preoccupied). Micropaleontology 25, 111.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. B. & Lister, T. R. 1969. Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian spore assemblages from the Welsh Borderland and South Wales. Palaeontology 12, 201–52.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. B. & McGregor, D. C. 1986. Silurian and Devonian spore zones of the Old Red Sandstone continent and adjacent regions. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 364, 1–79.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. B., Rasul, S. M. & Al-Ameri, T. 1981. Acritarchs, miospores and correlation of the Ludlovian-Downtonian and Silurian-Devonian boundaries. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 34, 209–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, J. B., Rodríguez, R. M. & Sutherland, S. J. E. 2001. Palynological zonation of Mid-Palaeozoic sequences from the Cantabrian Mountains, NW Spain: implications for inter-regional and interfacies correlation of the Ludford/Prídolí and Silurian/Devonian boundaries, and plant dispersal patterns. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Geology Series 57, 115–62.Google Scholar
Rickards, B., Brussa, E., Toro, B. & Ortega, G. 1996. Ordovician and Silurian graptolite assemblages from Cerro del Fuerte, San Juan Province, Argentina. Geological Journal 31, 101–22.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, R. M. 1983. Palinología de las Formaciones del Silúrico superior-Devónico Inferior de la Cordillera Cantábrica. Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de León, 1–231.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V. 1992. Palinología del Silúrico Superior (Formación Los Espejos) de la Quebrada de Las Aguaditas, Precordillera de San Juan, Argentina. Ameghiniana 29 (3), 231–48.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V. 1995. Acritarchs from the Upper Silurian of Argentina: their relations with Gondwana. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 8, 103–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubinstein, C. 2001. Microflora y microplancton silúricos de la Precordillera Central de San Juan, Argentina. In Palinología: Diversidad y Aplicaciones (eds Fombella Blanco, M. A., Fernández González, D. & Valencia Barrera, R. M.), pp. 45–54. Secretariado de Publicaciones, Universidad de León.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V. & Brussa, E. D. 1999. A palynomorph and graptolite biostratigraphy of the Central Precordillera Silurian basin, Argentina. In Studies in Palaeozoic Palynology. Selected papers from the CIMP Symposium at Pisa, 1998 (eds Tongiorgi, M. & Playford, G.). Bolletino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 38 (2–3), 257–66.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V. & García Muro, V. J. 2011. Fitoplancton marino de pared orgánica y mioesporas silúricos de la formación los espejos, en el perfil del Río de Las Chacritas, Precordillera de San Juan, Argentina. Ameghiniana 48 (4), 618–41.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V. & García Muro, V. J. 2013. Silurian to Early Devonian organic-walled phytoplankton and miospores from Argentina: biostratigraphy and diversity trends. Geological Journal 48, 270–83.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V., García Muro, V. J. & Steemans, P. 2010. Edad de las esporas de la Formación Los Espejos, Silúrico de la Precordillera de San Juan, Argentina. XIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Paleobotânica e Palinologia. Salvador, Bahia, Brasil. Anais, p. 142.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V., García Muro, V. J. & Steemans, P. 2011. Miospores from Ordovician-Silurian Argentinean basins: evolution and relationships with other South American basins. 44th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Southampton, U.K. Programme and Abstracts, p. 40.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V., Gerrienne, P., de la Puente, G. S., Astini, R. A. & Steemans, P. 2010. Early middle Ordovician evidence for land plants in Argentina (eastern Gondwana). New Phytologist 188, 365–9.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C., Le Hérissé, A. & Steemans, P. 1996. Lower Devonian palynomorphs from the Talacasto Formation, Cerro del Fuerte Section, San Juan Precordillera, Argentina. International Meeting and Workshop – C.I.M.P. Prague, Abstract, p. 19.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, C. V. & Steemans, P. 2002. Miospore assemblages from the Silurian-Devonian boundary, in borehole A1–61, Ghadamis Basin, Libya. In Paleozoic Palynology: a special issue in honour of Dr. Stanislas Loboziak (eds Steemans, P., Servais, T. & Streel, M.). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 118, 397–421.Google Scholar
Sanchez, T. M., Waisfeld, B. & Benedetto, J. L. 1991. Lithofacies, taphonomy, and brachiopod assemblages in the Silurian of western Argentina: a review of Malvinokaffric Realm communities. Journal of South American Earth Science 4, 307–29.Google Scholar
Spina, A. & Vecoli, M. 2009. Palynostratigraphy and vegetational changes in the Siluro-Devonian of the Ghadamis Basin, North Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 282, 1–18.Google Scholar
Steemans, P. 1989. Palynostratigraphie de l'Eodévonien dans l'ouest de l’Europe. Mémoires Explicatifs pour les Cartes Géologiques and Minéralogiques de la Belgique, Bruxelles 27, 1–453.Google Scholar
Steemans, P. 1995. Silurian and Lower Emsian spores in Saudi Arabia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 89, 91–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steemans, P., Higgs, K. T. & Wellman, C. H. 2000. Cryptospores and trilete spores from the Llandovery, Nuayyim-2 Borehole, Saudi Arabia. In Stratigraphic Palynology of the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia (eds Al-Hajri, S. & Owens, B.), pp. 92–115. Bahrain: Special GeoArabia Publication 1, Gulf PetroLink.Google Scholar
Steemans, P., Le Hérissé, A. & Bozdogan, N. 1996. Ordovician and Silurian cryptospores and miospores from southeastern Turkey. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 93, 35–76.Google Scholar
Steemans, P., Rubinstein, C. & Melo, J. H. G. 2008. Siluro-Devonian miospore biostratigraphy of the Urubu River area, western Amazon Basin, northern Brazil. Geobios 41, 263–82.Google Scholar
Steemans, P., Wellman, C. H. & Filatoff, J. 2007. Palaeophytogeographical and palaeoecological implications of a miospore assemblage of earliest Devonian (Lochkovian) age from Saudi Arabia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 250, 237–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Streel, M., Higgs, K., Loboziak, S., Riegel, W. & Steemans, P. 1987. Spore stratigraphy and correlation with faunas and floras in the type marine Devonian of the Ardenno-Rhenish regions. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 50, 211–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taugourdeau, P. & de Jekhowsky, B. 1960. Répartition et description des Chitinozoaires Siluro-Dévoniens de quelques sondages de la C.R.E.P.S. de la C.F.P.A. et de la S.N. Repal au Sahara. Revue de l'Institut Français du Pétrole, Paris 15, 1199–260.Google Scholar
Vigran, J. O. 1964. Spores from Devonian deposits, Mimerdalen, Spitsbergen. Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter 132, 1–32.Google Scholar
Wellman, C. H. 1993. A land plant microfossil assemblage of Mid Silurian age from the Stonehaven Group, Scotland. Journal of Micropalaentology 12, 47–66.Google Scholar
Wellman, C. H. 1996. Cryptospores from the type area for the Caradoc Series (Ordovician) in southern Britain. Palaeontology 55, 103–36.Google Scholar
Wellman, C. H. 2006. Spore assemblages from the Lower Devonian ‘Lower Old Red Sandstone’ deposits of the Rhynie outlier, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 97, 167–211.Google Scholar
Wellman, C. H. & Richardson, J. B. 1993. Terrestrial plant microfossils from Silurian inliers of the midland valley of Scotland. Palaeontology 36, 155–93.Google Scholar
Wellman, C. H. & Richardson, J. B. 1996. Sporomorph assemblage from the “Lower Old Red Sandstone” of the Lorne, Scotland. Palaeontology 55, 41–101.Google Scholar
Wellman, C. H., Thomas, R. G., Edwards, D. & Kenrick, P. 1998. The Coheston Group (Lower Old Red Sandstone) in southwest Wales: age, correlation and palaeobotanical significance. Geological Magazine 135, 397–412.Google Scholar