Abstract
In this contribution we describe fossil plant remains from Río Seco de los Castaños Formation, at San Rafael Block , Mendoza Province, Argentina. The fossil plants comprise non-forked and forked axes without or with delicate lateral expansions, which are assigned to Bowerophylloides cf. mendozaensis and Hostinella sp. We refer them to primitive land plants and discuss about their systematic affiliation. Furthermore, we mention the presence of a diverse acritarch assemblage present in the same lithostratigraphic unit. On the basis of the taxonomical information and stratigraphic correlation, we could infer that Río Seco de los Castaños Formation has an Early Devonian age. The taphonomical conditions of this fossil association would indicate that the plants were transported some distance from their presumed coastal and riverbank habitats. Finally, studying the amount and the percentage of kaolinite within charcoal levels, warm to cool temperate paleoclimatic conditions were deduced.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cramer FH (1964) Some acritarchs of the San Pedro formation (Gedinniano) of the Cantabrian Mountains in Spain. Bull Soc Belge Géol 73:33–38
Cuerda AJ, Cingolani CA (1998) El Ordovícico de la región del Cerro Bola en el Bloque de San Rafael, Mendoza: sus faunas graptolíticas. Ameghiniana 35:427–448
Cuerda AJ, Cingolani C, Arrondo O, Morel E, Ganuza D (1987) Primer registro de plantas vasculares en la Formación Villavicencio, Precordillera de Mendoza, Argentina. Cuarto Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontología. Actas I:179–183 (Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia)
Di Persia (1972) Breve nota sobre la edad de la denominada Serie de la Horqueta-Zona Sierra Pintada, Departamento de San Rafael, Provincia de Mendoza. 4° Jornadas Geológicas Argentinas 3:29–41
Dorning KJ (1981) Silurian acritarchs from the type Wenlock and Ludlow of Shropshire, England. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 34:175–203
Edwards D, Morel E, Poiré DG, Cingolani CA (2001) Land plants in the Devonian Villavicencio formation, Mendoza Province, Argentina. Rev Palaeobotany Palynol 116:1–18
Edwards D, Poiré DG, Morel E, Cingolani CA (2009) Plant assemblages from SW Gondwana: further evidence for high—latitude vegetation in the Devonian of Argentina. Bassett MG (ed) Early Palaeozoic Peri—Gondwana terranes: new insights from tectonics and biogeography, vol 325. Geological Society, London (Special Publications), pp 233–255
Fensome RA, Williams GL, Barss MS, Freeman MJ, Hill JM (1990) Acritarchs and fossil prasinophytes: an index to genera, species and intraspecific taxa. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Contribution Series Nº 25, 771 pp
Gensel PG, Andrews HN (1984) Plant life in the Devonian. Praeger Publishers, New York, 380 pp
González Díaz EF (1972) Descripción geológica de la Hoja 27d, San Rafael, Mendoza. Servicio Minero—Geológico, Boletín, vol 132. 127 pp (Buenos Aires)
González Díaz EF (1981) Nuevos argumentos a favor del desdoblamiento de la denominada Serie de La Horqueta del Bloque de San Rafael, Provincia de Mendoza. 8° Congreso Geológico Argentino. Actas 3:241–256 (Buenos Aires)
Kenrick P, Crane PR (1997) The origin and early diversification of land plants, a cladistic study. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 441 pp
Lang WH, Cookson IC (1935) On a flora, including vascular land plants, associated with Monograptus, in rocks of Silurian age, from Victoria, Australia. Phil Trans R Soc London 224B:421–449
Le Hérissé A (1989) Acritarches et kystes d'algues prasinophycées du Silurien de Gotland, Suede. Palaeontographia Italica 76:57–302
Loeblich AR Jr., Drugg WS (1968) New acritarchs from the Early Devonian (late Gedinnian) Haragan Formation of Oklahoma, USA. Tulane Stud Geol 6:129–137
Manassero MJ, Cingolani CA, Abre P (2009) A Silurian—Devonian marine platform—deltaic system in the San Rafael Block, Argentine Precordillera—Cuyania terrane: lithofacies and provenance. In: Königshof P (ed) Devonian change: case studies in palaeogeography and palaeoecology, vol 314. The Geological Society, London (Special Publications), pp 215–240
Morel EM, Cingolani CA, Ganuza DG, Uriz NJ (2006) El registro de Lycophytas primitivas en la Formación Río Seco de los Castaños, Bloque de San Rafael, Mendoza. 9º Congreso Argentino de Paleontología y Bioestratigrafía. Resúmenes: 47 (Córdoba)
Morel EM, Cingolani CA, Ganuza DG, Uriz NJ (2007) Primitive lycophytes record at the Río Seco de los Castaños Formation, San Rafael Block, Mendoza province, Argentina. Field Meeting of the IGCP 499, Devonian land-sea interaction: evolution of ecosystems and climate. pp 106–108 (San Juan)
Pazos P, Heredia A, Cingolani CA (2013) Nereites ichnofacies in the Río Seco de los Castaños Formation, Mendoza, Argentina: age, facies and trace-fossil content. II Reunión Argentina de Icnología. Abstracts (Santa Rosa)
Pazos P, Heredia A, Fernández DE, Gutiérrez C, Comerio M (2015) The ichnogenus Dictyodora from late Silurian deposits of central-western Argentina: ichnotaxonomy, ethology and ichnostratigrapical perspectives from Gondwana. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 439:27–37
Poiré DG, Morel E (1996). Procesos sedimentarios vinculados a la depositación de niveles con plantas en secuencias silúrico-devónicas de la Precordillera. Argentina. Actas VI Reunión Argentina de Sedimentología, pp 205–210
Poiré DG, Cingolani C, Morel E (1998) Trazas fósiles de la Formation Horqueta (Silúrico), Bloque de San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina. Tercera Reunión de Icnología y Primera Reunión de Icnología del Mercosur. Resúmenes: 24 (Mar del Plata)
Poiré DG, Cingolani CA, Morel E (2002) Características sedimentológicas de la Formación Río Seco de los Castaños en el perfil de Agua del Blanco: Pre-Carbonífero del Bloque de San Rafael, Mendoza. XV Congreso Geológico Argentino I:129–133 (Calafate)
Pöthe de Baldis ED (1999) Informe palinológico del Proyecto: Investigaciones en las unidades del Precámbrico y Paleozoico inferior del Bloque de San Rafael. Instituto de Geología (INGEO), Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Mendoza (5p, unpublished)
Rubinstein CV (1993) Primer registro de miosporas y acritarcos del Devónico inferior en el “Grupo Villavicencio”, Precordillera de Mendoza, Argentina. Ameghiniana 30:219–220
Rubinstein CV (1997) Primer registro de palinomorfos silúricos en la Formación la Horqueta, Bloque de San Rafael, Provincia de Mendoza Argentina. Ameghiniana 34:163–167
Scotese CR, Boucot AJ, McKerrow WS (1999) Gondwanan palaeogeography and palaeoclimatology. J Afr Earth Sc 28:99–114
Acknowledgements
Financial support for this chapter was provided by grant Projects 647 and 199 CONICET (Argentina). The authors want to express their thanks to Dianne Edwards (Cardiff, UK) for numerous suggestions and comments in the early draft of the paper. We also thank to Marcelo Manassero, Paulina Abre and María Cecilia Amenábar for kind comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Morel, E.M., Cingolani, C.A., Ganuza, D., Uriz, N.J., Bodnar, J. (2017). Primitive Vascular Plants and Microfossils from the Río Seco de los Castaños Formation, San Rafael Block, Mendoza Province, Argentina. In: Cingolani, C. (eds) Pre-carboniferous Evolution of the San Rafael Block, Argentina. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50153-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50153-6_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50151-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50153-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)