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The age of the Tashinga Formation (Karoo Supergroup) in the Mid-Zambezi Basin, Zimbabwe and the first phytosaur from mainland sub-Saharan Africa
- Source :
- Gondwana Research. 81:445-460
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Correlations between continental sequences within the Karoo-aged basins of southern and eastern Africa are difficult due to the dearth of shared index fossils and a lack of radioisotopic dates for key formations. Here we describe four sites along the southeastern shoreline of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, within the Mid-Zambezi Basin, that yield material of phytosaurs (Archosauromorpha: Phytosauria) from within the informal Tashinga Formation (Upper Karoo Group). These phytosaur remains are the first to be recovered from sub-Saharan mainland Africa, representing a major geographic range extension for this group into high southern latitudes. Furthermore, an LA-ICPMS maximum depositional age of 209.2 ± 4.5 Ma (late Norian/early Rhaetian) derived from detrital zircons provides the first absolute age estimate for any of these sites. The phytosaurs are associated with lungfish and metoposaurid amphibians, forming part of a terrestrial-aquatic dominated biota, a previously undocumented biome from the Late Triassic of southern Africa.
- Subjects :
- 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
biology
Phytosaur
Biome
Geology
Biota
Structural basin
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
biology.organism_classification
01 natural sciences
Sedimentary depositional environment
Paleontology
Absolute dating
Index fossil
Archosauromorpha
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1342937X
- Volume :
- 81
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Gondwana Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........f3d2ad118c6b18176a3c5895f3c228f0