Fossil fern in the High Andes of Peru

[Pierre-Olivier Combelles]

A close modern specie of our fossil fern: Adiantum capillus-veneris, Adiantaceae (Northern Europe). In: Collins Guide of Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe. Text by Richard Fitter ad Alastair Fitter. Illustrated by Ann Farrer. Collins, London, 1984.

 

[Pierre-Olivier Combelles]

An interesting paper from french IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) of 2005:

 

The Lower Carboniferous of the western edge of Gondwana in Peru and
Bolivia: Distribution of sedimentary basins and associated magmatism
Alberto Zapata M. \ Agapito Sanchez F. '. Segundo Carrasco V. 1, Agustin Cardona 2, Jorge
Galdos H. 1, Fredy Cerrôn Z. 1, & Thierry Sempere 3

1 Direction of Regional Geology, Instituto Geologico Minero Metalurgico (INGEMMET), Lima, Peru
2 Phd student of the University of Sâo Paulo, Brazil
3 IRD, LMTG, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France

 

6th International Symposium on Andean Geodynamics (ISAG 2005, Barcelona), Extended Abstracts: 817-820

 

http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers09-03/010040372.pdf

 

Would date our fossil fern, in the Carboniferous,  between Tournaisien (-358.9) and Serpoukhovien (-323.2). See the extract below ("Junin-Huancavelica Sector"). 

 

As said in the abstract of the paper, we are here in the western edge of Gondwana:

 

"During the Early Carboniferous, the tectono-sedimentary and rnagrnatic configuration of the western edge of Gondwana (Eastern Cordillera of Peru and Cordillera Real of Bolivia, between latitudes 3°S and 24°S; Figure 1) associated a marine and continental sedimentation (Ambo Group), a volcanic arc (Lavasen Formation) and a related plutonism (Pataz-Balsas-Buldibuyo batholith, Higueras pluton , Amparaes and Cadenas granites). "

 

Good trip, my fellows, in the space and time !

 

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Pierre-Olivier Combelles
precisions

[Pierre-Olivier Combelles]

Yesterday, I have asked Thierry Sempéré, a retired french geologist of IRD, specialist of the Andes (morphology, geological mapping), author of the very interesting paper I mentioned before (http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers09-03/010040372.pdf )  

 

http://www.perou.ird.fr/nos-activites/programmes-de-recherche/sciences-de-la-terre/histoire-et-anatomie-des-andes-peruviens-et-applications-a-l-exploration-de-ressources-naturelles#

 

and very kindly, he replies me:

 

Concernant votre exemplaire de fougère fossile, il semble s'agir de Nothorhacopteris cf. kellaybelensis, d'âge Mississipien supérieur (ou même Pennsylvanien inférieur, à mon avis), typique du Groupe Ambo, et ici il serait intéressant de connaître la localité où vous avez trouvé votre exemplaire. Je vois sur votre forum que l'on vous a déjà proposé Nothorhacopteris argentinicus, d'âge similaire mais typique de la Patagonie. À ma connaissance les Nothorhacopteris du Pérou et de Bolivie sont tous attribués à l'espèce kellaybelensis, très voisine.

 

Being not paleontologist but only geologist, this is only his point of view, as he says. 

So, for him, our fern would be Nothorhacopteris cf. kellaybelensis from the Upper Mississipian (even Lower Pennsylvanian) typical of Ambo group.

We expect to get more precisions asking the statigraphy of the area (bu I dscovered this fossil on the ground of the puna 20 years ago...)

 

[Pierre-Olivier Combelles]

Other extract of Thierry Sempéré mentioned paper

 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thierry_Sempere/publication/32967577_The_Mississippian_of_the_western_edge_of_Gondwana_in_Peru_and_Bolivia_distribution_of_sedimentary_basins_and_associated_magmatism/links/0deec52602355a6b9c000000/The-Mississippian-of-the-western-edge-of-Gondwana-in-Peru-and-Bolivia-distribution-of-sedimentary-basins-and-associated-magmatism.pdf?origin=publication_detail

[Pierre-Olivier Combelles]

About Nothorhacopteris kellaybelensis:

 

 

A new Serpukhovian (Mississippian) fossil flora from western Argentina: Paleoclimatic, paleobiogeographic and stratigraphic implications

Article · September 2009 
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.07.005
Diego Balseiro
1st Diego Balseiro
19.64 · National Scientific and Technical Research Council
Juan José Rustán
2nd Juan José Rustán
18.04 · CICTERRA (CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba)
Miguel Ezpeleta
3rd Miguel Ezpeleta
14.28 · National Scientific and Technical Research Council
N. Emilio Vaccari
4th N. Emilio Vaccari

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235973348_A_new_Serpukhovian_Mississippian_fossil_flora_from_western_Argentina_Paleoclimatic_paleobiogeographic_and_stratigraphic_implications

 

Some pictures:

[abyssunder]

Thank you for the update. Good research and good publications.
This document might help, also: R. Ianuzzi et al. 1999. Los Elementos Fioristicos de la Formacion Siripaca (Grupo Ambo, Bolivia) y su contexto bioestratigráfico. Pesquisas 26: 21-40.

Also, in a logical manner, the species name N. kellaybelensis came from Kellay-Belen.

 

 

" Abstract -The fossil flora of the Siripaca Formation (Ambo Group., Copacabana Peninsula, Bolivia) was originally characterized by two endemic taxa: Nothorhacopteris kellaybelenensis and Triphyllopteris boliviana. Other taxa of this flora were recently collected and are descrihed here: Paulophyton sommeri, Diplothmema bodenbenderi and ?Sphenopteridiurn internedium. The biostratipraphic value of all the lossil plants described for the Siripaca Fomation is here analysed considering these new elements and their presence in other Gondwana floras. We propose a late Visean to earliest Serpukhovian (latest Early Carboniferous) age for the flora in the Siripaca Formation. The biochrons of these elements within South America are also proposed. "

 

excerpt from A. Carlos et al., 2011

 

[Pierre-Olivier Combelles]

Thank you very much, Abyssunder !

 

Very funny: the fossiliferous stratas I took pictures when travelling here  in 1991  http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/76790-fossiliferous-strata-near-lake-titicaca-bolivia-44/ were in this mere area between Siripaca-Kellay Belen- Collasuyo and Tiquina (southern side of the road, opposite to the lake)! As this paper is dated from 1999, perhaps the excavations were those done fbefore by this team of researchers ?...

Anyway, the Nothorhacopteris of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (nice pictures of the plate !) and my Nothohacopteris of Lake Junin (Peru) belong to the same Ambo group of Mississipian, typical of the flora of Gondwana.

Very interesting.

Do you know australian paleo-botanist Mary E. White's works about Gondwana ?