Breakthroughs in the biodiversity, biogeography, biostratigraphy, and basin analysis of the Beaufort group

• Published in: Journal of African earth sciences (1994) 2001, Vol.33 (3), p.563-577
• Main Authors: Hancox, P.J, Rubidge, B.S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beaufort Group; Cynognathus; Global biozone correlation; Hancox: Permo-Triassic; Lystrosaurus; Main Karoo Basin
• ISSN: 1464-343X; 0899-5362; 1879-1956
• DOI: 10.1016/S0899-5362(01)00081-1

Over the past decade researchers working on the rocks of the Beaufort Group in the main Karoo Basin of South Africa have vastly increased our understanding of this important Permo-Triassic sequence. Many new fossil forms have been discovered, allowing for breakthroughs into the biodiversity, biogeography and biostratigraphy of the group. Taxonomic and phylogenetic advances are many and varied, and cover most of the vertebrate taxa, but with emphasis placed on the temnospondyl amphibians, archosauriforms and non-mammalian synapsids, in particular the anomodontia. Biostratigraphic breakthroughs have centered on the Middle Permian Eodicynodon and Tapinocephalus assemblage zones, the Late Permian Dicynodon Assemblage Zone, and the Triassic Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus assemblage zones. Correlation of these biozones with better dated sequences in Europe, Russia and China has allowed for many chronostratigraphic refinements, which are in turn vital for sequence stratigraphical analysis of the basin fill. Based on fossil data, both the lower (Ecca–Beaufort) and upper (Beaufort–Molteno) contacts of the group have been proved to be highly diachronous. The refined chronostratigraphic framework has also allowed for a better analysis of the basin evolution through time, particularly in terms of the correlation of external stimuli that affect basin sedimentation patterns.