Permian-Triassic Charophytes: Distribution, Biostratigraphy and Biotic Events

Abstract

Permian charophytes are known from the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, China, the USA, Brazil, Paraguay and India. Most of these records are of Middle- Late Permian Age and are the basis of local biostratigraphic zonation in southern Russia and China. Development of a robust Permian charophyte biostratigraphy will require a more extensive record. Triassic charophytes are known from Germany, Sweden, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Russia, Morocco, Congo, the USA, Argentina, Kazakhstan and China. This encompasses records from all Triassic stages and has been the basis of detailed biostratigraphic zonation in southern Russia-Kazakhstan-eastern Europe. Permian and Triassic charophyte biostratigraphy at the level of genus does not provide detailed correlations beyond local or regional schemes. Nevertheless, it does identify some important evolutionary datums that constrain the timing of important biotic events in the Permian-Triassic evolutionary history of the Charophyta, including: (1) Early Permian extinction of the Palaeocharaceae; (2) Late Permian extinction of the “Trochiliscales” (Moellerinales); (3) Carboniferous origin of the paraphyletic Porocharaceae, soon followed during the Permian by the origin of the multicellular basal plate; and (4) an important generic turnover of charophytes across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, though there are insufficient data to identify this as a mass extinction.