Permian Lycopsids from Brazil

Extant lycopsids are small, mostly herbaceous plants, but during the Paleozoic, taxa of this lineage reached arborescent growth habits. Here we provide a glimpse into the lycopsid fossils from the Permian of Brazil. In this country, these plants have been reported from the Permian strata of the Parnaíba and Paraná basins. The Permian lycopsid fossil record of the Parnaíba Basin is scarce. For this basin, only a few axes classified as Nothostigma brasiliense were described from the Pedra de Fogo Formation, and their presence was mentioned for a single locality of the Motuca Formation. In the Paraná Basin, macrofossils and megaspores attributed to lycopsids are abundant in the Cisularian strata of the Rio Bonito Formation. The lycopsid macrofossils from this unit are mostly assigned to Brasilodendron pedroanum, which is usually considered an arborescent or sub-arborescent plant. Another lycopsid known from the Rio Bonito strata is the herbaceous Lycopodites riograndensis. For the other Cisularian units of the Paraná Basin, fossils of this lineage of plants are extremely rare. Lycopsid axes are important components of the Guadalupian Teresina and Corumbataí formations, and they are usually identified as Lycopodiopsis derbyi, which grew as a branched pole. Other lycopsid fossils from the Corumbataí Formation include microphylls assigned to Lepidophylloides corumbataensis, and axes classified as Cyclodendron dolianitii from the Teresina Formation. Lycopsid fossils are significant components of the Geobiological Heritage of Brazil. However, little is known about them, and this might be related to a lack of in-depth studies and the incomplete nature of their fossil record.