Biostratigraphy of the Itararé Subgroup, Paraná Basin: revision and new ideas

Abstract

This paper critically reviews the paleontological contributions on the ltararé Subgroup of the Paraná Basin, Brasil, in order to clarify its chronology and biostratigraphic successions. This unit exhibits highly heterogeneous facies associations involving glacial, periglacial and probably postglacial deposits (including marine ones). Detailed analysis ofthe vertical and horizontal distributions of the different taxa suggests an age ranging from the Late Carboniferous Westphalian through the Middle Perrnian Kungurian. Previous observation of a change of palynomorphs between the Artinskian and the Kungurian, with a first appearance of forests at the beginning of the Kungurian, is here interpreted as indicative of the end of glaciation in the Latest Artinskian