No Permian-Triassic Boundary Tetrapod Fauna Preserved in South America

Modesto, S. P. and J. Botha-Brink. 2010. Problems of correlation of South African and South American tetrapod faunas across the Permian–Triassic boundary. Journal of South African Earth Sciences 57:242-248. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2009.08.004

Abstract - The best record of continental tetrapod faunas crossing the Permo–Triassic boundary (PTB) is found in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Similar records are not known elsewhere among the former Gondwanan land masses, but it was recently proposed on the basis of palaeontological evidence that the Buena Vista Formation of Uruguay preserves a South American record of continental PTB tetrapods. The Buena Vista Formation was previously correlated to the Lower Triassic (Olenekian) Sanga do Cabral Formation of Brazil on the basis of lithostratigraphic evidence, but recent collecting in the former unit has produced a tetrapod fauna that is distinct to that documented for the latter. The unequivocal tetrapod fossils that have been described thus far from the Buena Vista Formation include indeterminate mastodonsaurid temnospondyls, a plagiosauroid temnospondyl, and a procolophonid reptile. The temnospondyls belong to Triassic groups, whereas the procolophonid is allied most closely with Early Triassic taxa from the Karoo Basin. We conclude that there is no compelling palaeontological evidence for placing any part of the Buena Vista Formation in the Permian. A precise placement of the Buena Vista Formation in the Triassic on the basis of its tetrapod fauna is not possible at this time. Accordingly, the Karoo Basin of South Africa remains the only Gondwanan basin that records a PTB tetrapod fauna.