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The association between Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) and mass extinctions and anoxic events is attributed to the radical climatic changes in Earth. Even though the Early Cretaceous Paraná–Etendeka Igneous Province has a comparable erupted volume (>1 Mkm3) to other LIPs (e.g., Deccan, Emeishan and Siberian Traps), it remains controversial why this LIP did not contribute to a mass extinction and whether it is associated with the Weissert Event. This work presents new 40Ar/39Ar dating over a 425-m vertical stratigraphic profile (out of 1,000 m) that spans three formations of the PE-LIP in southern Brazil (low-Ti Vale do Sol, high-Ti Urubici, and high-Ti Palmas). Our data demonstrate that this mafic lava pile was emplaced in c. 2.0 m.y., from c. 135.5 Ma to c. 133.5 Ma, and endorse the hypothesis that the basaltic and andesitic flows of the Vale do Sol Formation (peak of mafic magmatism) contributed to the Weissert Event.

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T15:01:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-04-01 Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Micropaleontology is crucial branch of Earth Sciences, with a pivotal role in the success of the oil and gas industry over the decades. This sector of paleontology is based on the taxonomical description of microfossils, which encompass fossils with size variation from 0.001 mm to 1 m. Normally these microorganisms have a high rate on preservation, thus they are widely accepted as reliable evidence to infer about paleodepositional settings and paleoclimate change. Furthermore, microfossils are critical to understanding the evolution through time, being many of them recognized as index fossil and providing useful biozones to correlation. Since 1950, microfossils have been taxonomically described mainly by stereomicroscopes. However, as the technology progress, traditional ways to study these organisms are challenged and improved by nondestructive three-dimensional imaging techniques, as X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM), three-dimensional X-ray microscopy (3DXRM), the X-ray computed microtomography (microCT) and X-ray computed nanotomography (nanoCT). Recently, one of the most compelling research areas in micropaleontology is the desire to automatize and enhance the details of systematic classification. Thereby, an increasing number of researches have applied the high-resolution X-ray analysis aiming to improve the morphological, taxonomic and taphonomic examination. Most of them have detailed the enhancement provided by the technique when compared with the standard microscopes, and raised questions about the traditional characters used on the microfossil systematic taxonomy. Nevertheless, even with the surpassing detail on microfossil characterization, the application of microCT has been hampered by the costs and sometimes by the needs of specific computer skill. Thus, this research has evaluated the use of microCT as the technique to classify a random bulk of microfossil (comprising foraminifers, ostracods, radiolarians, gastropods and echinoderms) with no further software treatment. No standard microscope analysis was performed. Despite chemical composition of microfossils, most of the specimens morphology, especially internal structures, have been easily acquired and analyzed. 96% of the microfossils of the dataset were identified at least on genus level. Irrespective of the deepness of detail, when considering the overall taxonomic identification, the microCT seems to be effective as the standard microscope. Nonetheless, when problematic specimens are evaluated, the microCT seems to be a more reliable and practical tool than other methods as Scanning Electron Microscopy. Thus, the technique can be used solo or as a complementary method to the stereomicroscope. Additionally, the high-resolution has the potential to lead to the expected automatized & nbsp;micropaleontology, since they can provide numerous images in several planes. This may create a strong database necessary to machine learning and computer identification. Univ Fed Santa Catarina, Dept Mech Engn, Lab Meios Porosos & Propriedades Termofis LMPT, BR-88040535 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil Univ Fed Pernambuco, Dept Geol, Lab Micropaleontol Aplicada LMA, BR-50740540 Recife, PE, Brazil Univ Vale Rio dos Sinos, Inst Tecnol Micropaleontol, Itt Fossil, Sao Leopoldo, RS, Brazil Univ Vale Rio dos Sinos, Geol Grad Program, BR-93022750 Sao Leopoldo, RS, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Fac Ciencias Bauru, Dept Ciencias Biol, Ave Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, BR-17033360 Bauru, SP, Brazil Univ Fed Santa Catarina, Dept Geol, Lab Geoquim LABGEOQ, Rua Engn Agron Andrei Cristian Ferreira S-N, BR-88040535 Florianopolis, SC, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Fac Ciencias Bauru, Dept Ciencias Biol, Ave Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, BR-17033360 Bauru, SP, Brazil

The Lontras Shale is a fossil site located in Mafra, Santa Catarina, south of Brazil. This Late Paleozoic (Pennsilvanian - Cisularian) stratum holds an important place with great potential for the synthesis of knowledge about paradigmatic events that happened on Gondwana. This marine fossil site, preserved into a 1.1 m black shale, comprises a combination of different kinds of preservation, in broad taphonomical spectra, including hard and/or soft-tissues of aquatic (e.g., fishes, poriferans and ammonoids) and terrestrial biotas (e.g., insect and woods), among other organisms that were well preserved under still unrevealed process and conditions. Considering the prevailing depositional settings and aiming to present fossil diagenetic aspects that led to some special preservation modes, we performed chemical analyses of sponges and insects by means of energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), synchrotron micro-X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) and Raman spectroscopy. To date, we have identified the majority of fossils preserved as carbonaceous compressions or phosphatized forms. The well-preserved fossils have so far permitted new insights into metazoan evolution, especially regarding Insecta, Porifera, and Conodonta. Our findings not only allow suggestions regarding the chemical remains of soft tissues on these specimens but also can provide background data for future analyses of these groups in similar depositional settings.

O registro de vertebrados fosseis da Formacao Guabirotuba, Bacia de Curitiba (Cenozoico), no sul do Brasil, restringia-se a um dente de crocodiliforme e fragmentos osseos indeterminados. Novos especimes, coletados em afl oramento localizado na cidade de Curitiba, no Estado do Parana, sao aqui descritos e correspondem ao primeiro registro de Pleurodira (Testudines) para a bacia. A presenca de Testudines aquaticos, associadas a Crocodyliformes corrobora a interpretacao de um paleoambiente fluvio-lacustre para os depositos da Formacao Guabirotuba e indica um clima mais umido do que previamente proposto.Palavras-chave: Testudines, Pleurodira, Bacia de Curitiba, Formacao Guabirotuba, Cenozoico.

Na região entre São Marcos (RS) e Antônio Prado (RS), a Formação Serra Geral expõe na base uma sucessão de basaltos do tipo pahoehoe sotopostos a derrames ´a´ā. Os primeiros foram gerados por um volume de erupção baixo em um regime de fluxo fechado e colocado em uma paleotopografia plana (< 5° de declividade). A lenta perda de calor deste sistema permite que os fluxos atinjam distâncias da fonte > 100 km. Os tipos ´a´ā foram gerados por descargas dos fluxos superiores às das pahoehoe e transportados em canais abertos, em que o rápido resfriamento limita o deslocamento dos fluxos por longas distâncias da fonte. Ambos são toleíticos de baixo TiO2 e a morfologia dos derrames não pode ser explicada por variações geoquímicas. Acima destes afloram vulcanitos ácidos quimicamente compatíveis com o Grupo Palmas e Subgrupo Caxias. Recentemente, a extração de rochas ornamentais na região expôs as porções internas dos diques de alimentação deste vulcanismo. Observam-se estruturas magmáticas subverticais e verticais que em superfície abasteceram domos de lavas com características exógenas. Propõe-se um modelo para a geração destes envolvendo a ascensão diapírica de magmas ácidos que se tornam vesiculados, viscosos e estacionários em subsuperfície. Posteriormente, maiores volumes de recargas magmáticas ascendem rapidamente e extraem "pedaços" da fração vesiculada gerando no conduto autobrechas e estruturas verticalizadas que se expandem lateralmente em direção à superfície organizando os domos de lavas com vitrófiros na base e no topo e um núcleo maciço fanerítico fino. A ciclicidade e homogeneidade textural dos domos são típicas de efusivas e a identificação das zonas subvulcânicas de alimentação permite compreender o modo de colocação destes fluxos na Formação Serra Geral.

Caddisflies (Trichoptera) are small, cosmopolitan insects closely related to the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). Most caddisflies construct protective cases during their larval development. Although the earliest recognisable caddisflies date back to the early Mesozoic (Early and Middle Triassic), being particularly numerous and diverse during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, the first records of their larval case constructions are known exclusively from much younger, Early to Middle Jurassic non-marine deposits in the northern hemisphere. Here we present fossils from the Early Permian (Asselian–Sakmarian) marine deposits of Brazil which have strong morphological and compositional similarity to larval cases of caddisflies. If they are, which is very probable, these finds not only push back the fossil record of true caddisflies, but also indicate that their larvae constructed cases at the very beginning of their evolution in marine environments. Since modern caddisflies that construct larval cases in marine environments are only known from eastern Australia and New Zealand, we suggest that this marine ecology may have first evolved in western Gondwana during the Early Permian and later spread across southern Pangea.

The Serra Geral Formation volcanic sequence in Torres Syncline (Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil) may be divided into main valley, intermediate zone, and southern hinge. The first volcanic episode along the syncline is characterized by low eruption rates ( ; 5 - 10 m³/s). The formation of 'a'ā flows occurred on a plain relief. Pahoehoe and 'a'ā flows have similar chemistry, and the difference in the flow type is related to an increase in eruption rates. The 'a'ā lavas are plagioclase and clinopyroxene phyric, or glomeroporphyritic. All present an intergranular or intersertal microcrystalline groundmass of plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and opaque minerals (<< 0.1 mm in diameter). The pahoehoe lavas differ from the 'a'ā ones in that they have a coarser-grained microcrystalline groundmass. The pahoehoe flows are microcrystalline with glomeroporphyritic and diktytaxitic textures and a plagioclase-poor matrix when compared to 'a'ā lava flows. The higher content of microlites in the 'a'ā flows is attributed to undercooling, higher rate of eruption, and degassing before and during emplacement. When it comes to regional stratigraphic correlation between the Serra Geral Formation flows, the morphological type of the lavas should be taken into account since 'a'ā flows, unlike pahoehoe, do not reach longer distances from the source.

The Neoproterozoic shoshonitic and mildly alkaline bimodal volcanism of Southernmost Brazil is represented by rock assemblages associated to sedimentary successions, deposited in strike-slip basins formed at the post-collisional stages of the Brasilian/Pan-African orogenic cycle. The best-preserved volcano sedimentary associations occur in the Camaquã and Campo Alegre Basins, respectively in the Sul-riograndense and Catarinense Shields and are outside the main shear belts or overlying the unaffected basement areas. These basins are characterized by alternation of volcanic cycles and siliciclastic sedimentation developed dominantly on a continental setting under subaerial conditions. This volcanism and the coeval plutonism evolved from high-K tholeiitic and calc-alkaline to shoshonitic and ended with a silica-saturated sodic alkaline magmatism, and its evolution were developed during at least 60 Ma. The compositional variation and evolution of post-collisional magmatism in southern Brazil are interpreted as the result mainly of melting of a heterogeneous mantle source, which includes garnet-phlogopite-bearing peridotites, veined-peridotites with abundant hydrated phases, such as amphibole, apatite and phlogopite, and eventually with the addition of an asthenospheric component. The subduction-related metasomatic character of post-collisional magmatism mantle sources in southern Brazil is put in evidence by Nb-negative anomalies and isotope features typical of EM1 sources. O vulcanismo neoproterozóico de afinidades shoshonítica e alcalina sódica saturada em sílica, do sul do Brasil é representado por uma sucessão de rochas vulcânicas, associadas com seqüências sedimentares que foram depositadas em bacias do tipo strike-slip, formadas nos estágios pós-colisionais do ciclo orogênico Brasiliano/Pan-africano. As associações vulcano-sedimentares mais bem representadas ocorrem nas bacias Camaquã e Campo Alegre, respectivamente nos escudos Sul-rio-grandense e Catarinense e situam-se fora das principais zonas de cisalhamento ou sobrepondo áreas não afetadas do embasamento. Estas bacias são caracterizadas pela alternância de ciclos vulcânicos e sedimentação siliciclástica, desenvolvidos dominantemente sob condições subaéreas em ambientes continentais. O vulcanismo é associado com plutonismo, cujo magmatismo evoluiu de afinidades toleítica e cálcio-alcalina alto-K, para shoshonítica e, finalmente, alcalina sódica e saturada em sílica, durante, pelo menos, 60 Ma. A variação composicional e a evolução do magmatismo pós-colisional do sul do Brasil são interpretadas como sendo, principalmente, resultado da fusão de uma fonte mantélica heterogênea, que inclui peridotitos ricos em granada e flogopita, peridotitos venulados com abundância em fases hidratadas, tais como anfibólio, apatita e flogopita e, eventualmente, contando com a adição de um componente astenosférico. A característica metassomática relacionada a subducção das fontes mantélicas deste magmatismo pós-colisional é evidenciada pelas anomalias negativas de Nb e características isotópicas, típicas de fontes do tipo EM1.

Studies focusing the flow morphology and structures of the basalts of Serra Geral Formation (west of Paraná State, Brazil) make possible the identification of pahoehoe and 'a'a flows, with predominance of simple and compound pahoehoe. This terminology was created in the Hawaiian Archipelago and was previously applied to the Columbia River Basalts and Deccan Plateau, and can also be used in the investigation of the Serra Geral Formation. The compound pahoehoe flows are formed by Ptype (pipe) and S-type (spongy) lobes. Surface features related with the pahoehoe and aa flows are well preserved in Serra Geral Formation. The flows have lateral extension of up to 50 km and can be divided in three portions in relation to the conduit: proximal, medium and distal. In the proximal portion the flows are thick (40-70 m) and the contact between the superior crust and the massive core is sharp. In the medium portion predominate simple pahoehoe flows with thickness between 20 and 30 m; locally occur compound pahoehoe. The distal portion is formed by compound flows (up to 5 m thick) with a few lobes. The emplacement of the pahoehoe inflated flows in the studied area suggests low eruption rates.