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Brazilian Paleofloras pp 1–39Cite as

Earliest Evidence of Land Plants in Brazil

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Abstract

The miospore record suggests that land plants, also called embryophytes, first colonized the continental biotas during Early Ordovician times, some 480–470 million years ago. Unambiguously macrofossil evidence of plants is of mid-Silurian age, about 430 million years ago. Plants then rapidly evolved and diversified. As soon as in Late Silurian/earliest Devonian times, the number of genera dramatically increased. Most of our knowledge on those earliest land plants comes from the current Northern Hemisphere (China, Europe, USA), where paleobotanical investigations began during the nineteenth century. The early land plant record of the Southern Hemisphere has been less investigated. Recently, Brazil has become an exception. The extensive Early Devonian flora from the Paraná Basin is being today actively studied. It is exceptionally rich and various and includes some of the largest specimens of early land plants known to date. In this chapter, we put a special emphasis on this exceptional flora and describe and illustrate several exceptionally large or rare specimens of embryophytes. The paleogeographical implications of the Early Devonian taphofloras from the Paraná Basin are discussed.

Philippe Gerrienne: deceased.

To Philippe Gerrienne, You were my friend and my colleague, and you were also the friend of a lot of people. You were one of the most brilliant palaeobotanists of the Devonian. Worldly recognized and respected by all of your colleagues. Our discipline has lost a famous scientist, and more importantly, we have lost a man of heart. Philippe passed away on June 29th 2019 – Philippe Steemans.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Philippe Gerrienne & Philippe Steemans

  2. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Hermínio de Araújo-Júnior, Sérgio Bergamaschi, Ingrid Milagres, Gustavo de Oliveira Martins, Egberto Pereira, Maria Antonieta Rodrigues & Vanessa Rodrigues-Francisco

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  1. Philippe Gerrienne
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  2. Hermínio de Araújo-Júnior
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  3. Sérgio Bergamaschi
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  4. Ingrid Milagres
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  5. Gustavo de Oliveira Martins
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  7. Maria Antonieta Rodrigues
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  8. Vanessa Rodrigues-Francisco
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  9. Philippe Steemans
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Correspondence to Hermínio de Araújo-Júnior .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Roberto Iannuzzi

  2. Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany

    Ronny Rößler

  3. Senckenberg Nature Research Society, Dresden, Germany

    Dr. Lutz Kunzmann

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Gerrienne, P. et al. (2020). Earliest Evidence of Land Plants in Brazil. In: Iannuzzi, R., Rößler, R., Kunzmann, L. (eds) Brazilian Paleofloras. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90913-4_2-1

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  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90913-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90913-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine & Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences