Indo-Brazilian Late Palaeozoic wildfires: an overview on macroscopic charcoal

Abstract

Sedimentary charcoal is widely accepted as a direct indicator for the occurrence of paleo-wildfires and, in Upper Paleozoic sediments of Euramerica and Cathaysia, reports on such remains are relatively common and (regionally and stratigraphically) more or less homogeneously distributed. On the contrary, just a few reliable records have been published for the Late Paleozoic of Gondwana and only recently it has been demonstrated that macroscopic charcoals (and thus fires) were also common in the southern continent during this period. The most important Gondwanan records are predominantly charred gymnosperm woods mainly related to coal bearing strata. Late Paleozoic macro-charcoal occurs in both, the Damodar Basin (India) and the Paraná Basin (Brazil), demonstrating that paleo-wildfires were spread out in different sequences and distinct stratigraphic intervals during this period in Gondwana. Based on the so far published records as well as new samples from the Seam-VI coalfield, Raniganj Formation (Damodar Basin – Lopingian of India), an overview of the Late Paleozoic Indo‑Brazilian macro-charcoal remains is presented. The hitherto unpublished samples were anatomically analyzed under Scanning Electron Microscope and a gymnosperm affinity could be established. The data presented here reinforce the relevance of paleo-wildfire as a source of environmental disturbance over large areas of Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic.