2013/12/15 by Elke Schneebeli‐Hermann, Wolfram M. Kürschner, Hans Kerp +5 · 10 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Plant Diversity and Evolution #Plant and Fungal Species Descriptions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.gr.2013.11.007
openalex publication_date 2013/12/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Hypotheses about the Permian–Triassic floral turnover range from a catastrophic extinction of terrestrial plant communities to a gradual change in floral composition punctuated by intervals indicating dramatic changes in the plant communities. The shallow marine Permian–Triassic succession in the Amb Valley, Salt Range, Pakistan, yields palynological suites together with well-preserved cuticle fragments in a stratigraphically well-constrained succession across the Permian–Triassic boundary. Palynology and cuticle analysis indicate a mixed Glossopteris–Dicroidium flora in the Late Permian. For the first time Dicroidium cuticles are documented from age-constrained Upper Permian deposits on the Indian subcontinent. Close to the Permian–Triassic boundary, several sporomorph taxa disappear. However, more than half of these taxa reappear in the overlying Smithian to Spathian succession. The major floral change occurs towards the Dienerian. From the Permian–Triassic boundary up to the middle Dienerian a gradual increase of lycopod spore abundance and a decrease in pteridosperms and conifers are evident. Synchronously, the generic richness of sporomorphs decreases. The middle Dienerian assemblages resemble the previously described spore spikes observed at the end-Permian (Norway) and in the middle Smithian (Pakistan) and might reflect a similar ecological crisis.
