Revision of the Devonian acritarch genus Pyloferites Quadros 1999 based on palynomorph assemblages from Brazil

Abstract

A large population of the acritarch genus Pyloferites Quadros 1999 was recovered from the Devonian strata of the Paraná Basin, Alto Garças Sub-basin (Brazil), at the Jaciara section. Based on a literature review and the examination of new material, including morphometric analyses, Pyloferites shows wide morphological variability, and, therefore, is herein emended. Additionally, a species emendation and a new species are instituted: Pyloferites escobaides (Cramer 1964) Daners et al. 2017 emend. nov., and Pyloferites paranaensis sp. nov. The stratigraphical distribution of P. escobaides is extended from the middle–late Pragian to the Famennian, while P. paranaeinsis is restricted to the Pragian to early Emsian, or possibly middle Emsian, of the Paraná Basin. The presence of Pyloferites in Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Spain supports a Gondwanan and Perigondwanan palaeobiogeographical distribution.

Keywords:

• acritarchs
• Devonian
• Paraná Basin
• Brazil
• Gondwana
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

We thank Philippe Steemans and Egberto Pereira for providing us with the samples for study. We are grateful to Paula Narváez and Florencia Carotti for revising the manuscript and for their useful comments. We acknowledge Thomas Servais, an anonymous reviewer, and the Editor, Jim Riding, for their useful comments that improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This contribution was financially supported by the National Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology (PICT 2017-0532).