Plant Diversification Through the Devonian in Brazil

Although the plant fossils from the Devonian of Brazil have been known for more than one century, we were able to scratch only a small part of this history. Some international paleobotanical collaborations began in the three main sedimentary basins containing Devonian rocks, but with time, more attention was paid to marine invertebrates and palynomorphs. Nevertheless, recent efforts in the Devonian of the Paraná Basin promoted some contributions in studying fossils from Furnas, Ponta Grossa, and São Domingos Formation. This contribution aims to synthesize and update the existing data on the Devonian plant records from Paraná, Parnaíba, and Amazon basins and to address their biostratigraphic and paleogeographic significance. The Devonian lithostratigraphic units bearing plant fossils were compiled and correlated based on palynological and stratigraphic studies. Some plant material housed in several institutions was briefly described and illustrated. In total, we compiled 25 genera of fossil plants distributed throughout the Lochkovian–Famennian interval. From the range of genera, three stratigraphic intervals and floral stages were identified, named Cooksonia-Hostinella, Haplostigma-Spongiophyton, and Protosalvinia. The early Devonian Cooksonia-Hostinella and Late Devonian Protosalvinia floral stages show taxa shared between Euramerican and western Gondwanan areas, whereas the late Early to early Late Devonian Haplostigma-Spongiophyton floral stage seems more restricted to Gondwanan areas.