New Permian fauna from tropical Gondwana

Terrestrial vertebrates are first known to colonize high-latitude regions during the middle Permian (Guadalupian) about 270 million years ago, following the Pennsylvanian Gondwanan continental glaciation. However, despite over 150 years of study in these areas, the biogeographic origins of these ric...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2015-11, Vol.6 (1), p.8676-8676, Article 8676
Main Authors: Cisneros, Juan C., Marsicano, Claudia, Angielczyk, Kenneth D., Smith, Roger M. H., Richter, Martha, Fröbisch, Jörg, Kammerer, Christian F., Sadleir, Rudyard W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/2450
631/158/852
631/181/414
Amphibians
Animals
Brazil
Etymology
Fossils
Geography
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Museums
Phylogeny
Reptiles & amphibians
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
South America
Vertebrates
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Summary:Terrestrial vertebrates are first known to colonize high-latitude regions during the middle Permian (Guadalupian) about 270 million years ago, following the Pennsylvanian Gondwanan continental glaciation. However, despite over 150 years of study in these areas, the biogeographic origins of these rich communities of land-dwelling vertebrates remain obscure. Here we report on a new early Permian continental tetrapod fauna from South America in tropical Western Gondwana that sheds new light on patterns of tetrapod distribution. Northeastern Brazil hosted an extensive lacustrine system inhabited by a unique community of temnospondyl amphibians and reptiles that considerably expand the known temporal and geographic ranges of key subgroups. Our findings demonstrate that tetrapod groups common in later Permian and Triassic temperate communities were already present in tropical Gondwana by the early Permian (Cisuralian). This new fauna constitutes a new biogeographic province with North American affinities and clearly demonstrates that tetrapod dispersal into Gondwana was already underway at the beginning of the Permian. The biogeographic origins of Permian terrestrial vertebrates in high-latitude regions remain poorly understood. Here, the authors report an early Permian continental tetrapod fauna from South America in tropical Western Gondwana that constitutes a new biogeographic province with North American affinities.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms9676