The Permo-Triassic Tetrapod Faunal Diversity in the Italian Southern Alps

Avanzini, Marco; Bernardi, Massimo; Nicosia, Umberto

doi:10.5772/27233

Cited by 15 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Tetrapod footprints from this deposit are attributable to vertebrate groups, such as Gorgonopsia, Cynodontia, Lepidosauromorpha, Pareiasauridae and Rhynchosauroidea [92]. Typically Permian ichnogenera are Ichniotherium and Hyloidichnus , found in association with taxa of clear Triassic affinity such as Rhynchosauroides [92,93]. Sparse plant remains were collected from several stratigraphic levels within the Gröden/Val Gardena Sandstone, but units below and above the carbonate bed of maximum transgression are very abundant and well preserved [84,94–100].…”

Section: Geological and Biological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of Northeastern Italy

2016

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To discern the effect of the end-Permian (P-Tr) ecological crisis on land, interactions between plants and their insect herbivores were examined for four time intervals containing ten major floras from the Dolomites of northeastern Italy during a Permian–Triassic interval. These floras are: (i) the Kungurian Tregiovo Flora; (ii) the Wuchiapingian Bletterbach Flora; (iii) three Anisian floras; and (iv) five Ladinian floras. Derived plant–insect interactional data is based on 4242 plant specimens (1995 Permian, 2247 Triassic) allocated to 86 fossil taxa (32 Permian, 56 Triassic), representing lycophytes, sphenophytes, pteridophytes, pteridosperms, ginkgophytes, cycadophytes and coniferophytes from 37 million-year interval (23 m.yr. Permian, 14 m.yr. Triassic). Major Kungurian herbivorized plants were unaffiliated taxa and pteridosperms; later during the Wuchiapingian cycadophytes were predominantly consumed. For the Anisian, pteridosperms and cycadophytes were preferentially consumed, and subordinately pteridophytes, lycophytes and conifers. Ladinian herbivores overwhelming targeted pteridosperms and subordinately cycadophytes and conifers. Throughout the interval the percentage of insect-damaged leaves in bulk floras, as a proportion of total leaves examined, varied from 3.6% for the Kungurian (N = 464 leaves), 1.95% for the Wuchiapingian (N = 1531), 11.65% for the pooled Anisian (N = 1324), to 10.72% for the pooled Ladinian (N = 923), documenting an overall herbivory rise. The percentage of generalized consumption, equivalent to external foliage feeding, consistently exceeded the level of specialized consumption from internal feeding. Generalized damage ranged from 73.6% (Kungurian) of all feeding damage, to 79% (Wuchiapingian), 65.5% (pooled Anisian) and 73.2% (pooled Ladinian). Generalized-to-specialized ratios show minimal change through the interval, although herbivore component community structure (herbivore species feeding on a single plant-host species) increasingly was partitioned from Wuchiapingian to Ladinian. The Paleozoic plant with the richest herbivore component community, the coniferophyte Pseudovoltzia liebeana, harbored four damage types (DTs), whereas its Triassic parallel, the pteridosperm Scytophyllum bergeri housed 11 DTs, almost four times that of P. liebeana. Although generalized DTs of P. liebeana were similar to S. bergeri, there was expansion of Triassic specialized feeding types, including leaf mining. Permian–Triassic generalized herbivory remained relatively constant, but specialized herbivores more finely partitioned plant-host tissues via new feeding modes, especially in the Anisian. Insect-damaged leaf percentages for Dolomites Kungurian and Wuchiapingian floras were similar to those of lower Permian, north-central Texas, but only one-third that of southeastern Brazil. Global herbivore patterns for Early Triassic plant–insect interactions remain unknown.

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Section: Geological and Biological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of Northeastern Italy

2016

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“…The global track record is much more abundant than the skeletal record and provides data as reliable as those obtained from skeletal remains (Carrano and Wilson, 2001;Avanzini et al, 2011). This fact is also relevant in the early Miocene of Iberian Peninsula owing to the scarcity of localities with avian remains (Sánchez-Marco, 1995a, 1995b.…”

Section: Early Miocene Avian Diversity In the Iberian Peninsulamentioning

confidence: 99%

First bird footprints from the lower Miocene Lerín Formation, Ebro Basin, Spain

Díaz‐Martínez

Suarez-Hernando

Martínez-García

et al. 2016

Palaeontologia Electronica

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A new tracksite with bird footprints, found in the Bardenas Reales de Navarra Natural Park (Navarre, Spain), is presented in this study. The footprints are preserved in four sandstone blocks of the Lerín Formation from the northwest sector of the Ebro Basin. According to the magnetostratigraphic data, the age of these blocks is 20.4 Ma (Agenian, lower Miocene). The footprints are more than 100 mm in length, mesaxonic, and tridactyl, and have a prominent central pad impression with the digit impressions not jointed proximally. These features allow classifying them as Uvaichnites riojana. Some of the studied footprints are better preserved than the type series of Uvaichnites, which were found also in the northwest sector of the Ebro Basin. Therefore, the original diagnosis has been emended. Available chronostratigraphic data for these localities as well as for other footprints from China indicate a latest Oligocene-earliest Miocene age (from about 23 to 20 Ma) for Uvaichnites-like footprints. Sedimentological data also indicate similar continental environments, namely perilacustrine deltaic systems and distal alluvial systems. The information about early Miocene avian remains (bones, eggs and footprints) in the Iberian Peninsula is scarce. The skeletal and oological record of this age has been included within the families Phoenicopteridae, Phaisanidae and Cathartidae (or incertae sedis), while the ichnological record was related with trackmakers belonging to Charadriiformes, Ardeidae and Gruidae taxa. For this scenario, in which there are few avian remains, the ichnological diversity shown in this paper complements and improves the knowledge about the Iberian avian diversity in the early Miocene.

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“…Other therapsids (2-3%) are documented by the presence of Contiichnus tazelwurmi (Citton et al, 2017), Dicinodontypus geinitzi (Hornstein 1876) and the enigmatic 'Ichniotherium' footprints. The tracks assigned to Hyloidichnus tirolensis by Ceoloni et al (1988) has been repeatedly attributed to a captorhinid producer (Haubold, 1996(Haubold, , 2000Voigt et al, 2009Voigt et al, , 2010Avanzini et al, 2011) and constitute 5% of the association. A recent review (L. Marchetti pers.…”

Section: Vertebrate Faunamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the absence of new definitive assignment we rely here on the most commonly accepted interpretation. The presence of lacertoid (basal neodiapsid) early saurians is evidenced by the classical Rhyncosauroides-Dromopus group (Maidwell, 1911;Abel, 1929;Conti et al, 1977;Valentini et al, 2007;Avanzini et al, 2011), which makes up 42% of the association. Archosauriformes, documented by Chirotheriidae indet., cf.…”

Section: Vertebrate Faunamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Radiometric dating (U/Pb) suggests an age of 274.1 ( ± 1.4) million years for the top of the underlying Auer/Ora Formation (Avanzini et al, 2007;Marocchi et al, 2008). Palynology, tetrapod occurrences, and dating of the overlying Bellerophon Formation based on nautiloids and brachiopods (Ceoloni et al, 1988;Posenato, 2010) suggest a Wuchiapingian age for the Gröden/Val Gardena Sandstone (Pittau, 2001(Pittau, , 2005Avanzini et al, 2011;Kustatscher et al, 2012Kustatscher et al, , 2017.…”

Section: The Bletterbach Ecosystem Southern Alpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Permian (Lopingian) Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Global Comparison With New Data From the Low Latitude Bletterbach Biota

Petti¹,

Bernardi²,

Kustatscher³

et al. 2017

Geological Society of America Abstracts With Programs

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Keywords:Tetrapoda flora phytoprovinces plant-insect interactions climate endemism latitudinal diversity gradient A B S T R A C TThe late Palaeozoic is a pivotal period for the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. Generalised warming and aridification trends resulted in profound floral and faunal turnover as well as increased levels of endemism. The patchiness of well-preserved, late Permian terrestrial ecosystems, however, complicates attempts to reconstruct a coherent, global scenario. In this paper, we provide a new reconstruction of the Bletterbach Biota (Southern Alps, NE Italy), which constitutes a unique, low-latitude record of Lopingian life on land. We also integrate floral, faunal (from skeletal and footprint studies), and plant-insect interaction data, as well as global climatic interpretations, to compare the composition of the 14 best-known late Permian ecosystems. The results of this ecosystem-scale analysis provide evidence for a strong correlation between the distribution of the principal clades of tetrapod herbivores (dicynodonts, pareiasaurs, captorhinids), phytoprovinces and climatic latitudinal zonation. We show that terrestrial ecosystems were structured and provincialised at high taxonomic levels by climate regions, and that latitudinal distribution is a key predictor of ecosystem compositional affinity. A latitudinal diversity gradient characterised by decreasing richness towards higher latitudes is apparent: mid-to lowlatitude ecosystems had the greatest amount of high-level taxonomic diversity, whereas those from high latitudes were dominated by small numbers of higher taxa. The high diversities of tropical ecosystems stem from their inclusion of a mixture of late-occurring holdovers from the early Permian, early members of clades that come to prominence in the Triassic, and contemporary taxa that are also represented in higher latitude assemblages. A variety of evidence suggests that the Permian tropics acted as both a cradle (an area with high origination rates) and museum (an area with low extinction rates) for biodiversity.

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The Permo-Triassic Tetrapod Faunal Diversity in the Italian Southern Alps

Cited by 15 publications

References 29 publications

Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of Northeastern Italy

Floral Assemblages and Patterns of Insect Herbivory during the Permian to Triassic of Northeastern Italy

First bird footprints from the lower Miocene Lerín Formation, Ebro Basin, Spain

Late Permian (Lopingian) Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Global Comparison With New Data From the Low Latitude Bletterbach Biota

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