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In Pursuit of Causes for the Greatest Mass Extinction: the Permo-Triassic Boundary in the Southern Hemisphere – Part II

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In Pursuit of Causes for the Greatest Mass Extinction: the Permo-Triassic Boundary in the Southern Hemisphere – Part II Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Brasília repositorio.unb.br Autorização concedida ao Repositório da Universidade de Brasília (RIUnB) sob licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional. Você tem direito de: Compartilhar — copiar e redistribuir o material em qualquer suporte ou formato. Adaptar — remixar, transformar, e criar a partir do material. De acordo com os termos seguintes: Atribuição — Você deve dar crédito ao autor e indicar se foram feitas mudanças. Não Comercial — Você não pode usar o material para fins comerciais. Compartilhar Igual — Se você remixar, transformar, ou criar a partir do material, tem de distribuir as suas contribuições sob a mesma licença do original. Authorization granted to the Repository of the University of Brasília (RIUnB) under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported International. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich (2008) 153(3/4): 81–91 In pursuit of causes for the greatest mass extinction: the Permo-Triassic Boundary in the Southern Hemisphere – part II Investigating 260 million years old, meteorite-impacted sedimentary rocks in central-west Brazil Raoul J. Mutter (London), Henrique Z. Tomassi (Brasília) and Dermeval A. do Carmo (Brasília) Abstract Auf der Suche nach Ursachen für das Various catastrophic and/or episodic events have been grösste Massenaussterbe-Ereignis: die suggested to have caused the end-Permian mass ex- Perm-Trias-Grenze der Südhemisphäre – tinction close to the Permo-Triassic Boundary (PTB). Teil II. The theories and extinction-scenarios are however Erforschung 260 Millionen Jahre alter predominantly based on the sedimentary rock record Meteoriteneinschlag-verformter Sediment- and fossil record of the Northern Hemisphere – the gesteine im zentralen Westbrasilien Southern Hemisphere and in particular the fossil Verschiedene katastrophenhafte und/oder episo- fish record worldwide being least well explored. In dische Ereignisse sind als Ursachen für das Massen- this second of four contributions we briefly present aussterbe-Ereignis am Ende des Perms in der Nähe a little-known meteorite-impact crater relatively clo- der Perm-Trias-Grenze (PTB) vorgeschlagen worden. se to the PTB on the border of the States of Goiás Die Theorien und Aussterbe-Szenarien gründen al- and Mato Grosso in central west-Brazil. We discuss lerdings mehrheitlich auf dem Sedimentgestein- und the occurrence of neighbouring Permian sedimentary Fossilbeleg der Nordhemisphäre, während die Süd- rocks, a selection of accessible outcrops, fossil con- hemisphäre und speziell der fossile Fisch-Beleg welt- tent and their potential to contribute to the discussion weit am wenigsten gründlich erforscht sind. In diesem around the end-Permian extinction event. zweiten von vier Beiträgen stellen wir einen wenig bekannten Meteoriten-Einschlagkrater relativ nahe der PTB an der Grenze der Staaten Goiás und Mato Grosso im zentralen West-Brasilien vor. Wir diskutie- ren das Auftreten benachbarter permischer Sediment- gesteine, eine Auswahl zugänglicher Aufschlüsse, Fossilinhalte und ihr Potential zur Diskussion um das Aussterbe-Ereignis am Ende des Perms beizutragen. Key words: Brazil – fossil fishes – geochemistry – mass extinction – meteorite impact – palaeontology – Permian – Permo-Triassic Boundary – States of Goiás/Mato Grosso – stratigraphy – Southern Hemisphere Schlagwörter: Brasilien – fossile Fische – Geochemie – Massenaussterben – Meteoriteneinschlag – Paläontologie – Perm – Perm-Trias-Grenze – Staaten Goiás/Mato Grosso – Stratigraphie – Südhemisphäre 1 IntrOductiON the decline of biotic diversity in the Late Permian may be Although extensive faunal and floral turnover is known to attributed to catastrophic global or rather more localized have taken place also in the Southern Hemisphere during events. It is widely agreed that regardless of the nature of the Permo-Triassic over a longer geological time interval such events – catastrophic, episodic, continuous, random (ERWIN, 2006), the question remains as to what degree or stochastic – only establishing considerable interregional 81 Raoul J. Mutter, Henrique Z. Tomassi and Dermeval A. do Carmo correlation using stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and, where extinction comes from the reasonably well-known Northern possible, absolute dating, will eventually lead to relative se- Hemisphere. Instead, another major geological event, for- quencing. This is crucial for correct sequencing of events in mation of the Siberian traps1, was suggested to have been time. ‘Time control’ and interpreting palaeoenvironmental associated with the PTB in the Northern Hemisphere (see changes through time are crucial components in interpre- CZAMANSKE and FEDORENKO, 2004). A disadvantage in ting these underlying processes. Some fossil sites and rock testing the latter hypothesis is that igneous2 rocks are poor sections close to or across the Permo-Triassic Boundary in or devoid of fossils. (PTB) differ widely in sedimentological, geochemical and There are currently three crater-like structures known palaeontological respects (e.g., LÓPEZ-GÓMEZ and TAY- and placed close to the PTB (Fig. 1). The Bedout High, a LOR, 2005; YIN et al., 2007). Even more problematic, re- disputed, impact crater-like, semi-circular morphological spective sites may be condensed in time, are often disconti- structure, approximately 100 km in diameter, was disco- nuous and unconformable in the Southern Hemisphere, and none of them are easily correlated (for details, see MUTTER and RICHTER, 2007: 221–222). Nevertheless, the so-called Araguainha-impact structure in central-west Brazil is an indispensable source of information: the fossil-bearing la- yers provide the only accessible (terrestrial) impact struc- ture that may be linked to the PTB, and where an impact actually caused at least a regional extinction. The end-Cretaceous extinction event that led to the dis- appearance of about 75% of existing species including di- nosaurs (e.g., ERWIN, 2006) is more thoroughly investigated than the end-Permian mass extinction. There is an ongoing dispute about the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary mass extinction. Probably, the end-Cretaceous Chicxulub bolide- impact has been attributed to the mass extinction prematu- rely, because the diversity in many fossil groups actually dwindled some time before that particular boundary (see MACLEOD et al., 1997; KELLER, 2001). Recent, more detai- Fig. 1. Snapshot of the palaeogeography of continents around led palaeontological and geochemical studies do not sup- the PTB showing continents of the Northern Hemisphere (Laura- port immediate or direct links between decline in diversity, sia) and the Southern Hemisphere (Gondwana) joined together in extinction, Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary and impact the supercontinent Pangaea. Circles indicate possible PTB impact craters (1, «Araguainha Dome» in Brazil; 2, «Wilkes Land» be- rocks, and have re-opened the discussion (see, for instance low Antarctica; 3, «Bedout High» off the north west coast of Aus- KELLER et al., 2003a, b, 2004; KELLER, 2004; ARCHIBALD tralia). Irregular blank areas with letters indicate relevant Gond- and FASTOVSKY, 2004). wana basins yielding Permian and Early Triassic fish assemblages For obvious reasons, events that happened about 180– (A, Parnaíba basin in Brazil; B, Paraná basin in Brazil; C, Karoo basin in South Africa; D, Sydney-Bowen basin in Australia). 200 million years before that boundary are more difficult Abb. 1. Momentaufnahme der Paläogeografie der Kontinente to study. As outlined in Part I of this series of contributions, um die PTB, in welcher die Kontinente der Nordhemisphäre there have been several possible causes suggested for the (Laurasia) und die der Südhemisphäre (Gondwana) zum Super- end-Permian extinction event(s). Since impact craters and kontinent Pangäa zusammengefügt waren. Die Kreise bezeich- nen mögliche PTB-Einschlagkrater (1, «Araguainha Dome» in impact events are also increasingly more difficult to iden- Brasilien; 2, «Wilkes Land» unterhalb der Antarktis; 3, «Bedout tify going back in time, there has only been recognized a High» vor der Nordwestküste Australiens). Irreguläre weisse vague line of evidence pointing toward a possible connec- Flächen symbolisieren relevante Becken Gondwanas, aus denen tion between impact(s) at the PTB and (long-term) Permo- permische und untertriassische Fossilreste geborgen werden (A, Parnaíba-Becken in Brasilien; B, Paraná-Becken in Brasilien; C, Triassic faunal turnover (for a review, see ROHDE and MUL- Karoo-Becken in Südafrika; D, Sydney-Bowen-Becken in Aus- LER, 2005). None of the evidence to support impact-related tralien). 1 Siberian traps: the largest known continental flood basalt (a large igneous province) 2 igneous: magmatic 82 In pursuit of causes for the greatest mass extinction vered on the sea floor off the northwest coast of Australia (BECKER et al., 2004). Another controversial structure is a circular gravity-anomaly with a diameter of about 300 km, situated below the ice shield of Wilkes Land in northeast Antarctica (FRESE et al.,
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