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The fossil record of temnospondyl amphibians in the immediate wake of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction captures extensive taxic and ecological diversity, with most records known from high paleolatitudinal settings. In southern Pangea, the most substantial records come from South Africa and Australia, with a total of over 20 taxa presently recognized. Temnospondyls have also been known from correlated horizons in the lower Fremouw Formation of Antarctica since the late 1960s, but these records are mostly fragmentary, thereby limiting taxonomic resolution to the family level and subsequent biostratigraphic correlations and comparisons between high-latitude basins. Here we report substantial new material of the amphibamiform Micropholis stowi, a relic dissorophoid previously known only from the Katberg Formation (Lystrosaurus declivis Assemblage Zone) of South Africa, from the lower Fremouw Formation. The exceptional preservation of the recently recovered material permits not only confident taxonomic referral but also tentative association of several individuals to the broad-headed morph of the taxon. The recognition of M. stowi in Antarctica represents only the fourth geographic occurrence of a dissorophoid from southern Pangea and supports the hypothesis that high-latitude environments served as refugia for temnospondyls during the mass extinction. In the case of M. stowi, such refugia permitted the persistence of a predominantly Permo-Carboniferous clade, and the Antarctic records discussed here further hint at a poorly sampled cryptic distribution, both of amphibamiforms in southern Pangea and of small-bodied temnospondyls in early Mesozoic deposits.
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T.D. Frank, C.R. Fielding, A.M.E. Winguth, K. Savatic, A. Tevyaw, C. Winguth, S. McLoughlin, V. Vajda, C. Mays, R. Nicoll, M. Bocking & J.L. Crowley (2021)
Pace, magnitude, and nature of terrestrial climate change through the end-Permian extinction in southeastern Gondwana
Geology (advance online publication)
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1130/G48795.1https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G48795.1/598763/Pace-magnitude-and-nature-of-terrestrial-climate
Rapid climate change was a major contributor to the end-Permian extinction (EPE). Although well constrained for the marine realm, relatively few records document the pace, nature, and magnitude of climate change across the EPE in terrestrial environments. We generated proxy records for chemical weathering and land surface temperature from continental margin deposits of the high-latitude southeastern margin of Gondwana. Regional climate simulations provide additional context. Results show that Glossopteris forest-mire ecosystems collapsed during a pulse of intense chemical weathering and peak warmth, which capped ~1 m.y. of gradual warming and intensification of seasonality. Erosion resulting from loss of vegetation was short lived in the low-relief landscape. Earliest Triassic climate was ~10-14 ÂC warmer than the late Lopingian and landscapes were no longer persistently wet. Aridification, commonly linked to the EPE, developed gradually, facilitating the persistence of refugia for moisture-loving terrestrial groups.
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