A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina)
The southern Central Andes–or Puna–now contains specialized plant communities adapted to life in extreme environments. During the middle Eocene (~40 Ma), the Cordillera at these latitudes was barely uplifted and global climates were much warmer than today. No fossil plant remains have been discovere...
Published in: | PLOS ONE |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37018180 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10075436 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10075436 2023-05-15T13:58:55+02:00 A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) Tapia, Mariano J. Farrell, Ezequiel E. Mautino, Lilia R. del Papa, Cecilia Barreda, Viviana D. Palazzesi, Luis 2023-04-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37018180 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37018180 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 © 2023 Tapia et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. PLoS One Research Article Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 2023-04-09T01:03:54Z The southern Central Andes–or Puna–now contains specialized plant communities adapted to life in extreme environments. During the middle Eocene (~40 Ma), the Cordillera at these latitudes was barely uplifted and global climates were much warmer than today. No fossil plant remains have been discovered so far from this age in the Puna region to attest to past scenarios. Yet, we assume that the vegetation cover must have been very different from what it looks today. To test this hypothesis, we study a spore-pollen record from the mid Eocene Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, northwestern Argentina). Although sampling is preliminary, we found ~70 morphotypes of spores, pollen grains and other palynomorphs, many of which were produced by taxa with tropical or subtropical modern distributions (e.g., Arecaceae, Ulmaceae Phyllostylon, Malvaceae Bombacoideae). Our reconstructed scenario implies the existence of a vegetated pond surrounded by trees, vines, and palms. We also report the northernmost records of a few unequivocal Gondwanan taxa (e.g., Nothofagus, Microcachrys), about 5,000 km north from their Patagonian-Antarctic hotspot. With few exceptions, the discovered taxa–both Neotropical and Gondwanan–became extinct from the region following the severe effects of the Andean uplift and the climate deterioration during the Neogene. We found no evidence for enhanced aridity nor cool conditions in the southern Central Andes at mid Eocene times. Instead, the overall assemblage represents a frost-free and humid to seasonally-dry ecosystem that prevailed near a lacustrine environment, in agreement with previous paleoenvironmental studies. Our reconstruction adds a further biotic component to the previously reported record of mammals. Text Antarc* Antarctic PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Argentina PLOS ONE 18 4 e0277389 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Article |
spellingShingle |
Research Article Tapia, Mariano J. Farrell, Ezequiel E. Mautino, Lilia R. del Papa, Cecilia Barreda, Viviana D. Palazzesi, Luis A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
The southern Central Andes–or Puna–now contains specialized plant communities adapted to life in extreme environments. During the middle Eocene (~40 Ma), the Cordillera at these latitudes was barely uplifted and global climates were much warmer than today. No fossil plant remains have been discovered so far from this age in the Puna region to attest to past scenarios. Yet, we assume that the vegetation cover must have been very different from what it looks today. To test this hypothesis, we study a spore-pollen record from the mid Eocene Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, northwestern Argentina). Although sampling is preliminary, we found ~70 morphotypes of spores, pollen grains and other palynomorphs, many of which were produced by taxa with tropical or subtropical modern distributions (e.g., Arecaceae, Ulmaceae Phyllostylon, Malvaceae Bombacoideae). Our reconstructed scenario implies the existence of a vegetated pond surrounded by trees, vines, and palms. We also report the northernmost records of a few unequivocal Gondwanan taxa (e.g., Nothofagus, Microcachrys), about 5,000 km north from their Patagonian-Antarctic hotspot. With few exceptions, the discovered taxa–both Neotropical and Gondwanan–became extinct from the region following the severe effects of the Andean uplift and the climate deterioration during the Neogene. We found no evidence for enhanced aridity nor cool conditions in the southern Central Andes at mid Eocene times. Instead, the overall assemblage represents a frost-free and humid to seasonally-dry ecosystem that prevailed near a lacustrine environment, in agreement with previous paleoenvironmental studies. Our reconstruction adds a further biotic component to the previously reported record of mammals. |
format |
Text |
author |
Tapia, Mariano J. Farrell, Ezequiel E. Mautino, Lilia R. del Papa, Cecilia Barreda, Viviana D. Palazzesi, Luis |
author_facet |
Tapia, Mariano J. Farrell, Ezequiel E. Mautino, Lilia R. del Papa, Cecilia Barreda, Viviana D. Palazzesi, Luis |
author_sort |
Tapia, Mariano J. |
title |
A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) |
title_short |
A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) |
title_full |
A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) |
title_fullStr |
A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) |
title_full_unstemmed |
A snapshot of mid Eocene landscapes in the southern Central Andes: Spore-pollen records from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina) |
title_sort |
snapshot of mid eocene landscapes in the southern central andes: spore-pollen records from the casa grande formation (jujuy, argentina) |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37018180 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 |
geographic |
Antarctic Argentina |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Argentina |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
PLoS One |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10075436/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37018180 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 |
op_rights |
© 2023 Tapia et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277389 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
e0277389 |
_version_ |
1766267287513333760 |