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Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives

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Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and
Future Perspectives

Mary Elizabeth C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira, Maria Judite Garcia,

Carla Terezinha Sério Abranches, Isabel Cortez Christiano-de-Souza,
Jennifer Watling, and Pauline Sabina Kavali

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Brazilian Palaeobotany History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Brazilian Empire (1822–1889): Phase of the Foreign Traveller-Scientists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The First Republic of the United States of Brazil (1890–1930): Phase of European and North
American Palaeobotanists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Brazilian Naturalists-Scientists of the First Republic of the United States of Brazil
(1890–1930) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Second and Third Republics of the United States of Brazil – The Vargas Age Dictatorship
(1930–1945): Phase of Immigrant and Brazilian Naturalist Researchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Fourth Republic of the United States of Brazil (1946–1964): Phase of Young Brazilian and
Foreign Geologists and Palaeontologists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Fifth Republic of the Federative Republic of Brazil – Military Dictatorship (1964–1985):
Phase of the Flowering of a National Palaeobotany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Sixth Republic of the Federative Republic of Brazil (1985 to Date): Phase of Brazilian
New Generation Palaeobotanists 1990–2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Future Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Cross-References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira (*) · M. J. Garcia · C. T. S. Abranches · I. C. Christiano-de-Souza

Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Department of Sedimentary and Environmental
Geology (GSA), Institute of Geosciences (IGc.), University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP,
Brazil
e-mail: maryeliz@usp.br; mjudite@usp.br; isabel.souza@usp.br
J. Watling
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE), University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP,
Brazil
P. S. Kavali
Birbal Sahni Institute de Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

R. Iannuzzi et al. (eds.), Brazilian Paleofloras,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90913-4_1-1
2 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Abstract
Brazilian palaeobotany began when Unger referred the first plant fossil,
Psaronius brasiliensis Brongniart, collected by von Martius and von Spix around
1820, shortly after the beginning of palaeobotanical sciences in Europe. In Brazil,
palaeobotany was developed initially by European researchers who studied
fossils in distant Nordic countries. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of
the 20th century, during the transition from the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889) to
the First Republic (1889-1930), some foreign researchers visited the country to
study geology and palaeontology and educated young Brazilians researchers.
Gradually, these scholars trained other researchers, including the first Brazilian
palaeobotanist (Elias Dolianiti) in the 1940s. Between the 1940s and 1960s, the
discipline was characterized by the contributions of both Brazilian and foreign
researchers, and several undergraduate geology courses were created. At the end
of this period, postgraduate courses were initiated in some universities with a
specialization in palaeobotany. In the 1970s, recently graduated palaeobotanists
sought new knowledge in European and North American institutions. From then
onwards, a continuous partnership between foreign and Brazilian researchers was
established, and palaeobotany matured even further, with researchers being
trained in the discipline. The constant growth of this science today is attested
by the 55 palaeobotanists currently in research institutions across Brazil. How-
ever, there is still much material waiting to be studied, whether it be in collections
or new occurrences, and this demands the formation of more specialists in the
area with backgrounds in both geology and biology.

List of Abbreviations
BMNH (in English)
CAPES (in Portuguese)
CGGESP (in Portuguese)
CGGPSP (in Portuguese)
CNP (in Portuguese)
CNPq (in Portuguese)
CSN (in Portuguese)
DGM (in Portuguese)
DNPM (in Portuguese)
FFCL/USP (in Portuguese)
IGEO/UFRGS (in Portuguese)
British Museum, Natural History Division,
London
Coordination for the Improvement of Higher
Education Personnel
Geographical and Geological Commission of
São Paulo State
Geographical and Geological Commission of
São Paulo Province
National Petroleum Council
National Council of Scientific and Technolog-
ical Development
National Steel Company
Division of Geology and Mineralogy
National Department of Mineral Production
Philosophy, Sciences and Letters College of the
University of São Paulo
Geosciences Institute of the Federal University
of Rio Grande do Sul
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 3

IG-SMASP (in Portuguese) Geological Institute of the State Secretary of

MN/UFRJ (in Portuguese)
MNHN (in French)
PUCCAMP (in Portuguese)
PUCRS (in Portuguese)
SGMB (in Portuguese)
UERJ (in Portuguese)
UERR (in Portuguese)
UFAC (in Portuguese)
UFPR (in Portuguese)
UFRJ (in Portuguese)
UFSC (in Portuguese)
UFSM (in Portuguese)
UFT (in Portuguese)
UFU (in Portuguese)
UNESP (in Portuguese)
UNICAMP (in Portuguese)
UNISINOS (in Portuguese)
UNITINS (in Portuguese)
UNIVATES (in Portuguese)
USP (in Portuguese)
the Environment of the State of São Paulo
National Museum of the Federal University of
Rio de Janeiro
National Museum of Natural History, Paris
Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande
do Sul.
Geological and Mineralogical Service of Brazil
State University of Rio de Janeiro
State University of Roraima
Federal University of Acre
Federal University of Paraná
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Federal University of Santa Catarina
Federal University of Santa Maria
Federal University of Tocantins
Federal University of Uberlândia
São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita
Filho”
State University of Campinas
University of Vale dos Sinos
State University of Tocantins
University of Vale do Taquari
University of São Paulo

Brazilian States Initials/Acronyms

AC Acre
AL Alagoas
AM Amazonas
AP Amapá
BA Bahia
CE Ceará
DF Distrito Federal
ES Espírito Santo
GO Goiás
MA Maranhão
MG Minas Gerais
MS Mato Grosso do Sul
MT Mato Grosso
PA Pará
PB Paraíba
PE Pernambuco
PI Piauí
4 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

PR Paraná
RJ Rio de Janeiro
RN Rio Grande do Norte
RO Rondônia
RR Roraima
RS Rio Grande do Sul
SC Santa Catarina
SE Sergipe
SP São Paulo
TO Tocantins

Introduction

Palaeobotany remains the only discipline by which the history and evolution of the
Kingdom Plantae can be documented and visualized. Many scientists in various
countries around the world have devoted their careers to studying the fossil records
of the floras that thrived in large areas of the Earth during different geological
epochs.
The history of palaeobotany and the biographical data of the scientists responsible
for developing this area of knowledge has been narrated in many publications
and websites in different countries around the world (e.g., Cleal and Thomas 2009).
In Brazil, some previous publications have made references to the history of
Brazilian palaeobotany within accounts of geological and/or palaeontological his-
tory (Mendes and Petri 1971; Pinto and Souza 2007). Others have produced reviews
specifically on the history and current state of the palaeobotanical sciences in Brazil
(Dolianiti 1948; Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al. 2016a).
This chapter intends to provide information on the development of
palaeobotany researches in Brazil, unraveling what has been produced until the
present day on this subject and tying this to the main historical-political events of
the nation. Under this framework, the chapter is divided into the following subtitles:

The Brazilian Empire (1822–1889): Phase of the Foreign Traveller-Scientists

(a) The Brazilian First Reign (D. Pedro I, 1822–1831) and The Regency Gov-
ernment (1831–1840) – European traveller-scientists visited Brazil, collected
and figured the first plant fossil specimen; (b) The Brazilian Second Reign (D.
Pedro II, 1840–1889) – Studies of Brazilian Phytofossils by European
museum scientists and North American geologists and palaeontologists,
some of them being invited by the government to settle in Brazil.
The First Republic of the United States of Brazil (1890–1930): Phase of Euro-
pean and North American palaeobotanists describing Brazilian
palaeobotanical material received in their countries or fixed residences in Brazil,
collaborating with the Brazilian naturalists-scientists of the First Republic of the
United States of Brazil (1890–1930).
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 5

The Second and Third Republics of the United States of Brazil – The Vargas
Age Dictatorship (1930–1945): Phase of Immigrant and Brazilian Naturalist
Researchers specially studying palaeobotany. (a) Brazilian palaeobotanical
material studied in foreign museums; (b) Immigrant and Brazilian naturalist
researchers studying palaeobotany in Brazil
The Fourth Republic of the United States of Brazil (1946–1964): Phase of Young
Brazilian and Foreign Geologists and Palaeontologists with some access to
palaeobotanical research, and the first Brazilian palaeobotanist.
The Fifth Republic of the Federative Republic of Brazil – Military Dictatorship
(1964–1985): Phase of the Flowering of a National Palaeobotany – many new
Brazilian researchers, some graduated outside of Brazil.
The Sixth Republic of the Federative Republic of Brazil (1985 to Date): Phase of
Brazilian New Generation Palaeobotanists (1990–2020) – receiving postgrad-
uate studies in Brazil with some external training.

Brazilian Palaeobotany History

Palaeobotanical studies in Brazil date to the 19th century onwards. Their beginning
was related to the transfer and establishment of the Portuguese Crown in Brazil
(1808–1821) as a result of the Napoleonic wars in Europe. During this time,
the Portuguese Colony was elevated to the position of “United Reign of Portugal,
Brazil and Algarve” (1815–1822). This event paved the way for many traveller-
scientists (naturalists, botanists, mineralogists) to study and explore the country.
Adolphe Brongniart, one of the “Fathers of Palaeobotany”, published his first
identifications on European and Indian plant fossils in 1822, the same year when
Brazil got its independence from Portugal. Considering that references to Brazilian
plant fossils before this have not been found, it is possible to assume with confidence
that, during the Colonial period, no mention of Brazilian plant fossils was made.

The Brazilian Empire (1822–1889): Phase of the Foreign Traveller-

Scientists

Before the Brazilian Empire, during the Colonial era of the United Reign of Portugal,
Brazil, and Algarve, naturalistic research in Brazil was led by European traveller-
scientists (mainly British, French, and German), with the developing participation of
Brazilian researchers. Until the foundation of the ancient Ouro Preto School of
Mines, in 1876, geological investigations were carried out almost exclusively by
foreign scientists (Mendes and Petri 1971).
In 1817, the Archduchess of Austria Lady Maria Leopoldina of Habsburg came to
Brazil. Daughter of King Francis I, she had just been married, by power of attorney,
to the Crown Prince to the throne of Portugal and future Emperor of Brazil, Dom
Pedro de Alcântara de Bragança e Bourbon. Accompanying the new Brazilian
Princess and funded by her, the Scientific Mission of Natural History (or Austrian
6 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Mission) included many scientists with different specialisms. Among these were the
zoologists Johann Baptist von Spix (Fig. 1a) and Johann Nattere and botanists
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (Fig. 1b), Johann Sebastian Mikan, Henrich
Wilhelm Schott, and Johann Emmanuel Pohl, along with artists, a lithographer, a
taxidermist, and a photographer.
After their arrival in Rio de Janeiro, von Spix, von Martius, and the painter Ender
moved away from the Austrian group and travelled to the hydrographic basin of
Paraíba do Sul, in the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo provinces.
From 1817 to 1820, they traversed thousands of kilometers across the country,
going through Ouro Preto and Diamantina, in Minas Gerais province, where they
learned about diamond mining. Later, they visited the provinces of Bahia, Pernam-
buco, Piauí, Maranhão, Pará, and Amazonas, crossed the Caatinga in Northeastern
Brazil and the Amazon forest, and suffered several tropical diseases. They profited
the time collecting and describing numerous animals and plants. They found and
collected the giant iron Bendegó meteorite fragments from Monte Santo (Bahia
Province) and fossil fish of the Santana Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Araripe
Basin, in Ceará Province). They also collected the first plant fossil specimen in
Brazil: a fragment of adventitious root from Psaronius brasiliensis, a famous
Marattialean fern species from the Pedra de Fogo Formation (Permian, Parnaíba
Basin, between Oeiras and São Gonçalo do Amarante, in Piauhy Province).

(a) “The Brazilian First Reign (D. Pedro I, 1822–1831) and The Regency Govern-
ment (1831–1840)”: European traveller-scientists visited Brazil, the first plant
fossil specimen was collected and figured.

Fig. 1 Palaeobotanists: (a) Johann Baptist von Spix; (b) Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 7

In 1836, just 16 years after the von Spix and von Martius expedition, the plant
fossil specimen they collected was named as Psaronius brasiliensis Brongniart by
Franz Unger (1800–1870), an Austrian botanist and palaeontologist. It was a stem
fragment of an arborescent fern figured in the work of von Martius (1831–1850),
entitled “Historia Naturalis Palmarum.” This incomplete specimen figured by Unger
(1836, in von Martius 1831–1850) is housed in Paris, numbered MNHN–1446.
Another more complete specimen (probably collected by von Martius’ Expedi-
tion or by Sellow, in 1826), first deposited in the Imperial Museum of Rio de Janeiro,
was cut into many slabs and, in 1839, a large fragment was retained in the Imperial
Museum, and other slabs were sent to various European museums (Paris, London,
Strasburg). The slab sent to the MNHN of Paris was formally described during the
Second Reign of Brazil when that species was created based upon the MNHN–1445
(holotype, Fig. 2) and MNHN–1446 specimens (Brongniart 1872).
The “Flora Brasiliensis” (1840–1906), elaborated by von Martius, August
Wilhelm Eichler, and Ignatz Urban, was also an outcome of the expedition. This
tremendous scientific work was sponsored by three monarchs – the Emperor of
Brazil, the King of Bavaria, and the Emperor of Austria – and elaborated by 65
specialists from several countries. With strength and determination much more than
possible to expect, the Empress Leopoldina stood out as a leader on projects that
boosted the development of science, culture, and other activities, and supported the
formation of Brazilian society.
During this time, many European traveller-scientists, such as Friedrich Sellow
and Charles Darwin came to Brazil. These scientists together with Brazilian
naturalists such as the Andrada Brothers (José Bonifácio and Martim Francisco
de Andrada e Silva) travelled great distances through the country.

Fig. 2 Psaronius brasiliensis

Brongniart 1872, Holotype
MNHN. F.1445. Courtesy of
Denise Pons
8 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Friedrich Sellow (1789–1831) was the only naturalist to collect plant fossils
during that period. He was a disciple of Carl Ludwig Willdenow, Georges Cuvier,
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Alexander von Humboldt. Sellow left Berlin to travel
Brazil in 1824 on the “Langsdorff Expedition.” From 1824 to 1829, he travelled more
than 16,000 kilometers throughout Brazil, from Minas Geraes to São Pedro do Rio
Grande do Sul provinces and Cisplatina Province (now Uruguay), observing nature
and society and providing a vast inventory of the Brazilian First Reign (Fig. 3).
He was probably the first scientist to examine the Jacuí Valley coal samples and to
describe a fossiliferous sequence in the area situated between São Gabriel and
Caiguaté (São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul province). He observed teeth and skulls
of fish and “silicified dicots.” He sent numerous palaeontological samples to the
National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. To the Berlin Natural History Museum, he sent
12,000 plants, 5000 birds, 110,000 insects, and 2000 geological samples. Sellow
remained in Brazil until 1831 when he suffered a tragic death by drowning in the

Fig. 3 Localities traveled by Friedrich Sellow between 1814 and 1831, and main vegetation types
along the route. For locality coordinates, see Gazetteer in Appendix I. (Garbino et al. 2017)
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 9

Doce river (province of Minas Geraes). Unfortunately, he had no time to describe

what he had collected.

(b) “The Brazilian Second Reign (D. Pedro II, 1840–1889)” – Studies of Brazilian
plant fossils by European museum scientists and North American geologists and
palaeontologists, some of them being invited by the government to settle in
Brazil.

The Second Reign was a time of significant cultural progress and enormous
importance to Brazil with its growth and consolidation as an independent country
and as an essential member of the American Nations. The Imperial Museum of Rio
de Janeiro (now National Museum of Rio de Janeiro) played a vital role in the
analyses of economic interest materials to the imperial government.
From 1840 to 1842, a Belgian mineralogist Dr. Jules Parigot stayed in Brazil.
During his trip, he analyzed samples of supposed coal from the provinces of
Alagoas, Bahia, Santa Catharina, and São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul. He ruled
out the existence of coal in the northeastern provinces but identified the precious fuel
in the south of the country (Fernandes et al. 2014). This proved an essential source of
energy for the economic development of the country shortly after that. In 1853, the
exploitation of coal began in the São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul province with the
opening of the Arroio dos Ratos mine, in the Jacuí Valley (Mendes and Petri 1971).
From 1863 to 1864, the English naturalist Nathaniel Plant analyzed the coal
reserves of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul province and collected fossils, sending
them to BMNH.
William Carruthers (1830–1922) scientist from the BMNH London described
and identified in 1869 the following plant fossils from shales within the coal
measures of the currently known as Rio Bonito Formation: Flemingites pedroanus
Carruthers [specific epithet in honor of Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, currently
designated as Brasilodendron pedroanum (Carruthers) Chaloner, Leistikow et Hill
1979]; Odontopteris plantiana Carruthers [¼Botrychiopsis plantiana (Carruthers)
Archangelsky et Arrondo 1971]; and Noeggerathia obovata Carruthers
[¼Gangamopteris obovata (Carruthers) D White 1908]. This paper was the
pioneering contribution to Brazilian Gondwanan palaeobotany and the inception
of these studies in the “Glossopteris flora” of Brazil (Carruthers, in Plant 1869, Part
III).
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Emperor Dom Pedro II
supported all scientific events and publications ensuring the continuity of projects
carried out by Brazilian scientists. Since 1870, the Imperial Museum of Rio de
Janeiro and the Pará Museum of Natural History and Ethnography (now the Emilio
Goeldi Museum) stood out as centers of research in ethnography and the natural
sciences. Before this, Brazilian scientific production was still incipient but grounded
by Augusto Comte’s positivism and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the
incorporation of which by Brazilian intellectual elites and politicians allowed the
approximation of Brazil to the European scientific context of the time (Pinto and
Souza 2007).
10 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

In addition to the European traveller-scientists of the Second Reign, around the

1870s, many North American researchers began to show interest in Brazilian
palaeontology. Some North American geologists and palaeontologists settled in
Brazil by invitation of the Brazilian Imperial Government (1874–1889), while others
received plant fossils in Europe and North America. Among researchers of the first
group were: Louis and Elizabeth Agassiz, George Gardner, Charles Frederic
Hartt (1840–1878) (Fig. 4a), Orville Adalbert Derby (1851–1915) (Fig. 4b), and
others.
Charles Frederick Hartt published a book entitled Geology and Physical
Geography of Brazil, where he cited many occurrences of plant fossils throughout
the country (Hartt 1870). In 1874, he was invited by the Brazilian government to
organize the Imperial Geology Commission, which aimed to prepare a geological
map of Brazil. This map was based on geological, mineralogical, and
palaeontological (mainly palaeobotanical) data and involved the collection of
numerous samples. Developing this task, the young scientist Orville A. Derby was
one of his assistants.
Orville Adalbert Derby was also a North American geologist, naturalized
Brazilian, who devoted his life entirely to Brazilian geology. C. F. Hartt, his
professor of geology and geography at Cornell University, invited him to participate
in a trip to Brazil in the summer of 1870. On this first expedition, called the “Morgan
trip,” Derby remained in the province of Pernambuco, collecting fossils from the
Maria Farinha Formation (Palaeocene of Paraíba Basin). In the summer of 1871, on
the second trip of the expedition, Derby returned to Brazil to explore the valley of the
Amazon River. At that time, he collected brachiopods in the limestones of the
Itaituba Formation (Pennsylvanian of Amazon Basin) along the banks of the Tapajós
River, which became the study material for his doctorate in 1874. Nine years later, he
presented an overview of knowledge about the “plant fossils of Brazil.”
Invited by the provincial government, Derby organized the Geographical and
Geological Commission of São Paulo Province (CGGPSP), from 1886 to 1904.
From 1889 onwards, when the Second Reign ended with the proclamation of the
Republic of the United States of Brazil, this Committee was renamed the Geo-
graphical and Geological Commission of São Paulo State (CGGESP). It is currently
called the Geological Institute of the State Secretary of the Environment (SP) (IG-
SMASP).

The First Republic of the United States of Brazil (1890–1930):

Phase of European and North American Palaeobotanists

In November of 1889, the Republic was proclaimed in Brazil by Marechal Deodoro

da Fonseca. The period between 1890 and 1930, known as the First Republic, was
characterized by the modernization of Brazil and its transformation from an agrarian
to an industrial country. Since the state of São Paulo had the most developed
agriculture and was a prolific producer and exporter of coffee, the first factories
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 11

Fig. 4 Palaeobotanists: (a) Charles F. Hartt (3); (b) Orville A. Derby (1); (c) Dr. Bernard Renault
(4); (d) René Charles Zeiller (4); (e) Hermann Solms-Laubach (1); (f) E. A. Newell Arber (1); (g)
Charles David White (4); (h) Israel Charles White (4); (i) Gösta Lundqvist (6); (j) Carlotta Joaquina
Maury (7); (k) Edward Wilber Berry (8); (l) Euzébio Paulo de Oliveira (9); (m) Matias Gonsalves de
Oliveira Roxo (9), (n) Carl Rudolf Florin (4); and (o) Reinhard Maack (10)
12 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

were built in this region. To expand industrial production, it became necessary to

intensify coal mining as an energy source for the sector.
During the first three decades of the twentieth century, renowned European and
North American palaeobotanists remained in their countries describing and identi-
fying Brazilian plant fossils based on specimens sent to them by Brazilian geologists
– some of those lived in Brazil for a short duration.
Among the most important palaeobotanists living abroad were: Bernard Renault
(1836–1904) (Fig. 4c); René Charles Zeiller (1847–1915) (Fig. 4d); Hermann
Graf zu Solms-Laubach (1842–1915) (Fig. 4e); Edward Alexander Newell
Arber (1870–1918) (Fig. 4f); Charles David White (1862–1935) (Fig. 4g) and
his geologist brother Israel Charles White (1848–1927) (Fig. 4h); Goesta
Lundqvist (1894–1967) (Fig. 4i); Carlotta Joaquina Maury (1874–1938) (Fig.
4j); and Edward Wilber Berry (1875–1945) (Fig. 4k).
In the Piracicaba region (SP), Derby collected “silicified stems of lycophytes”
from the Corumbataí Formation, Permian of the Paraná Basin. He sent them to
Bernard Renault, at the MNHN of Paris, a French specialist in the anatomy of
Carboniferous and Permian petrified plants. Based on the morphological study of the
cortical surface and anatomy of the inner portion of the stem, he created the genus
and species Lycopodiopsis derbyi Renault (Renault 1890).
Further, during the First Republic period, Derby (1913, 1914, 1915) made
observations on Psaronius brasiliensis Brongn. and Tietea singularis Solms-
Laubach.
René Charles Zeiller considerably expanded knowledge about the Flora of
Glossopteris in southern Brazil and Africa and described some new forms from
the Lower Gondwana of India. He continued the research initiated by Adolphe
Brongniart and was at the forefront of fossil plant research at the time, devoting 35
years of his life to his discoveries.
The taxonomy of the Permian gymnosperm woods of the Paraná Basin began in
the late 19th century with the description of Dadoxylon pedroi, identified in the coal
measures of the Rio Bonito Formation (Zeiller 1895a). The fossil was collected in
the Jaguarão Valley (RS), on the border with Uruguay, the southernmost coal area of
the country. He also examined a collection of plant fossil samples from the coal
deposits of Arroio dos Ratos, Jacuí Valley, in eastern RS (Zeiller 1895b). The
collection belonged to Her Imperial Highness Princess Isabel (exiled with the
imperial family in Paris at that time). Zeiller explained that because of her generosity,
some of them were donated to the École des Mines de Paris.
Zeiller reexamined the specimens from the Piracicaba region (SP), described by
Renault (1890) as Lycopodiopsis derbyi and recombined this species as
Lepidodendron derbyi (Renault) Zeiller (Zeiller 1898).
Hermann Graf zu Solms-Laubach, a German botanist, studied Permian fossil
woods from the Parnaíba Basin (MA and PI states) and identified them as Psaronius
brasiliensis (Unger) Brongniart. He also described fossil petrifactions of Permian
ferns as Psaroniaceae from the Corumbataí Formation, Tietê municipality (SP),
northeastern area of the Paraná Basin, which he designated as Tietea singularis
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 13

Solms-Laubach based on the absence of well-organized and defined meristeles in the

central portion of the stem (typical of Psaronius) (Solms-Laubach 1913).
Edward Alexander Newell Arber made a careful analytical summary of what
was known about the Glossopteris flora in his “Catalogue of the plant fossils” (Arber
1905). In this vital work, he referred to Brazilian fossils deposited in the British
Museum and other European museums, among them Psaronius brasiliensis. He also
extensively treated plant fossils from the Candiota and Jaguarão coalfields (RS)
described by Carruthers (in Plant 1869) and revised by Zeiller (1895a, b). Arber
referred to Plant (in Hartt 1870), registering Lepidodendron in association with
Glossopteris and cited the work of Liais (1872) showing the occurrence of
Sphenopteris and Calamitalean remains in the same regions. He also mentioned
Hartt’s (1870) records of Devonian plant impression identified as Asterophyllites (?)
scutigera Dawson (Calamocladus) from Rio Pardo, south of BA. He recorded the
observation of Derby (1903) that trunks of Dadoxylon-type conifers, stems and
leaves of Lepidodendron and Psaronius fragments occurred in SP. He stressed that
it was up to Renault (1890) to describe a new species of lycophyte stem as
Lycopodiopsis derbyi associated with the fern trunk (Psaronius) and Cordaites
leaves in Piracicaba (SP). He also agreed with Zeiller (1898) that the genus
Lycopodiopsis Renault was a true Lepidodendron and highlighted that Hettner
(1891) had recorded the presence of Glossopteris flora in the Arroio dos Ratos
coalfield on the Jacuí Valley (RS). Arber (1905) observed that Zeiller (1895a)
examined Hettner’s specimens in the Berlin Museum and identified among them:
Gangamopteris cyclopteroides var. attenuate and recognized Zeiller’s importance in
pointing out similarities between elements of the Glossopteris flora (Gangamopteris
cyclopteroides ¼ Gangamopteris obovata (Carruthers) White 1908 and
Neuropteridium validum ¼ Botrychiopsis plantiana (Carruthers) Archangelsky et
Arrondo 1971) with a common Euramerican Late Carboniferous plant designated as
Lepidophloios laricinus. He noticed that in another paper Zeiller (1895b) had
observed Lepidodendron or Sigillaria leaves, spores of vascular cryptogams and
pollen grains, and a new species of cordaitalean stem designated Dadoxylon pedroi,
from the Valley of Jaguarão (RS). Arber (1905) also noticed the absence of the genus
Glossopteris in the Gondwanan flora of Brazil until that time.
Charles David White was a North American geologist, who after making a brief
mention of the “Flora of the Brazilian Coal Measures” (White 1905), made the first
comprehensive monograph on Permian plants from southern Brazil (White 1908a, b).
This is one of the most essential and complete descriptions of fossils of the
Glossopteris flora from the coal layers of south Brazil and is found in Part III of
the “Final Report” which was written by Israel Charles White (1908b) for the
Coal-Stone Research Committee of Brazil, where the famous “White Stratigraphic
Column of the Paraná Basin” was first described. D. White (1908a) recognized fossil
occurrences along a new road (now the SC-390) built between Lauro Muler and
Bom Jardim da Serra in the Rio do Rasto Sierra (SC) which included many
specimens of stems, spores, leaves, fructifications, and seeds of lycopsids, sphenop-
sids, glossopterids, cordaitaleans, and conifers such as Phyllotheca spp.,
Glossopteris spp., Gangamopteris sp., Arberia, Noeggerathiopsis, etc.
14 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

In another paper, he registered a new fossil plant near Serrinha (BA) designated as
Alethopteris branneri (D. White 1913).
Fernand Pelourde, a palaeobotanist at the MNHN of Paris, specialized in
cryptogam plants, presented some observations on the species Psaronius brasiliensis
Brongniart. Two years later, he published another work on Brazilian Psaroniaceae,
where he included a new species: Psaronius arrojadoi Pelourde, in the Permian of
the Parnaíba Basin, from Chapada Jaboti (MA) (Pelourde 1912, 1914).
Adolf Gösta Lundqvist, a Swedish geologist, described new Permian
Glossopteris taphofloras from RS and PR. He also recognized lycopsids in the coal
measures of Arroio dos Ratos (RS), e.g., Lepidophloios laricinus Sternberg. In that
paper, he accepted White’s proposition (1908a) to consider G. cyclopteroides
Feistmantel as synonymous with G. obovata (Carr.) White. In the same article, he
also described the fructification Arberia brasiliensis Lundqvist. In Cambuí (PR), he
identified foliated sphenopsid stems, Gangamopteris and Glossopteris leaves, coni-
fer branches and seeds (Lundqvist 1919).
Carlotta Joaquina Maury was a North American geologist-palaeontologist with
expertise in invertebrate palaeozoology. She began working for the SGMB, in 1919,
as an official palaeontologist. In her paper “O Cretaceo da Parahyba do Norte” of the
SGMB Monograph 8 (Maury 1930), she described two coconut fruits of the
Gramame Formation (Maastrichtian) from João Pessoa (PB), named Palmocarpon
luisi (in honor of President Washington Luis Pereira de Sousa). According to Maury,
they came from a “Palmae flora,” which covered the coastal region of the Northeast
during that time, like Palmocarpon cretacea, Maastrichtian of the Netherlands. In
this paper, she mentioned, among others, the presence of Coccolobites (?)
riograndensis (Polygonaceae, Caryophyllales), Leguminosites vireti and
Platypodium (Fabaceae) from the Cretaceous of RN State.
It is interesting to note that Carlotta Maury was working on the identification of
fossil leaves from the Pliocene of the Rio Juruá (Cruzeiro do Sul municipality, AC)
and sent the material to E. Berry asking for his opinion. Both researchers published
the same results, save for some alterations, in two separate papers (Maury 1937;
Berry 1937). Their identifications were evaluated by Lélia Duarte, who proposed
synonyms for the identified species (Duarte 1970).
Edward Wilber Berry was a North American botanist whose research focus was
upon Palaeobotany. From 1911 to 1937, he published significant papers on the
American Mesozoic and Cenozoic palaeofloras. He also made important taxonomic
studies identifying Cenozoic fossil leaves from Central and South America (from the
Caribbean to Patagonia) and offered palaeoclimatic and palaeophytogeographic
interpretations.
His papers, mainly published in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Geol-
ogy, still provide the basis for many Palaeogene and Neogene palaeobotanical
studies. He published on various “Tertiary” fossiliferous plant occurrences in Brazil
and, co-authored with Charles Arthur Hollick, described 60 species of the Pliocene
flora of Alagoinhas and Marau, BA (Hollick and Berry 1924). In 1935, Berry
published on “Tertiary” plants of Brazil, in general, and in 1937 on Pliocene leaves
from Cruzeiro do Sul municipality (AC State).
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 15

The Brazilian Naturalists-Scientists of the First Republic of the United

States of Brazil (1890–1930)

Through Derby´s leadership, and due to the country’s government’s industrial

interests, the SGMB was established in 1907 with the primary purpose of pursuing
mineral resources and coal. It was in this context that the first group of Brazilian
palaeontologists arose and, as a result, less fossil material began being sent for study
abroad. Led by Derby, the first group was constituted by Euzébio Paulo de Oliveira
(1883–1939) (Fig. 4l) and Mathias Gonçalves de Oliveira Roxo (1885–1954) (Fig.
4m).
Euzébio Paulo de Oliveira began his research career as an engineer in the
Mineral Coal Mines Commission or “White Commission.” In 1907, he became a
geologist in the SGMB, which he directed and reorganized from 1925 to 1938. He
continued the work of IC White and Derby in the Gondwana strata of Brazil and their
coal and fossil content. His interest in palaeobotany became better defined after
1934, which will be mentioned in the next section.
In 1910, Mathias Gonçalves de Oliveira Roxo was the first Brazilian
palaeontologist. Derby’s disciple also began his research in the SGMB. Roxo
(1930) published the first Brazilian textbook on palaeobotany: “Noções sumárias
de Palaeophytologia” in the 7th Bulletin of the SGMB.

The Second and Third Republics of the United States of Brazil –

The Vargas Age Dictatorship (1930–1945): Phase of Immigrant
and Brazilian Naturalist Researchers

Getúlio Vargas was a Brazilian dictator who was in power uninterruptedly for 15
years after the 1930 revolution. During this period, known as the “Vargas Age” or
“New State” (1930–1945), the large National Department of Mineral Production
(DNPM) was formed and the SGMB, renamed the Division of Geology and Miner-
alogy (DGM), was included in it. Within the DGM, a Section of Palaeontology was
formed to house the collections resulting from the previous SGMB. The Conselho
Nacional de Petróleo (CNP, future PETROBRAS) was also established during this
period, alongside the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN), the largest steel
industry in Latin America. Its plant is in the city of Volta Redonda (RJ State) and
its blast furnaces, which began to consume a vast quantity of coal from SC and RS
mines, promoted a more intense study of Brazilian coal.

(a) Brazilian Palaeobotanical material studied in Foreign Museums. During this

time, the sending of Brazilian fossiliferous material to European and North
American museums recommenced, while Brazilian material that was already
housed abroad began to be studied by important palaeobotanists such as: Carl
Rudolf Florin (1894–1965) (Fig. 4n), Olof H. Selling (1917–2012), and
Charles Brian Read (1907–1979).
16 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Carl Rudolf Florin was a prestigious Swedish botanist and palaeobotanist. His
studies included observations on floras from all over the world since the middle
Palaeozoic to the Holocene. He described the conifers Paranocladus dusenii and P
(?) fallax based on specimens from the area of Figueira or Cambuí (PR) today
recognized as belonging to the Triunfo Member of the Rio Bonito Formation,
Permian of the Paraná Basin (Florin 1940). P (?) fallax was previously identified
as Brachyphyllum (?) australle Feistmantel by Lundqvist (1919). This material was
deposited in the Swedish National Museum of Palaeobotany, in Stockholm.
In 1945, Olof Hugo Selling, another Swedish palaeoanatomist and palynologist
created the species Humiria bahiensis Selling based on a fossil endocarp from the
Neogene of Maraú (BA) with other species from Peru and Colombia. The holotype
of this species was collected by the Swedish geographer Fredrik Enquist in 1921 and
deposited it in the Swedish National Museum of Palaeobotany in Stockholm.
During World War II (1939–1945), a cooperation agreement between the DNPM
and the U.S. Geological Survey was signed, which lasted about 20 years. At that
time, some North American scientists such as Charles Brian Read (1907–1979)
studied Brazilian palaeontology.
Charles Brian Read was a brilliant North American geologist and palaeobotanist
led by David White. His palaeobotanical studies included morphology and plant
anatomy, floristics, and biostratigraphy. A Brazilian palaeobotanical collection had
been sent to D. White at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, but
unfortunately, he died in 1935, before he could study that material. Read decided to
carry on the study of the Brazilian fossil plants. In this work, he studied Devonian to
Permian floras of South America (from Peru, Argentina and Brazil, especially of the
Paraná Basin) and their macrofloral successions (Read 1941).

(b) Immigrant and Brazilian Naturalist Researchers studying Palaeobotany. During

the Vargas Dictatorship Age (1930–1945), some Brazilian or immigrant
researchers devoted to the study of gymnosperms or living angiosperm logs
anatomy carried out investigations on Palaeozoic and Cretaceous woods.
Among them, it is worth highlighting the following researchers: Wilhelm Rau
(1874–1953); Fernando Romano Milanez (1905–1987); Euzébio Paulo de
Oliveira (1883–1939); Reinhard Maack (Fig. 4o) (1892–1969); and Luiz
Flores de Moraes Rego (1896–1940).

Wilhelm Rau was a German medical doctor who lived in RS State since the
beginning of the twentieth century. He had a particular passion for palaeontology. In
palaeobotany, he published several works on wood structures of late Palaeozoic and
Mesozoic gymnosperms (Rau 1928, 1933a, 1933b).
Fernando Romano Milanez was a Brazilian anatomist of living logs, director of
the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. He described a petrifaction of a Cretaceous
angiosperm from Piauí, designating it as Lecythioxylon brasiliense Milanez. In 1950,
in collaboration with Elias Dolianiti, he made a study on a new Lower Permian
gymnosperm trunk (Milanez 1935, Milanez and Dolianiti 1950). Later, he guided the
palaeobotanist Diana Mussa in her first steps within palaeoxylology.
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 17

As previously stated, the interest of Euzébio Paulo de Oliveira in palaeobotany

became better defined from 1934, so his works in this discipline will be mentioned
here. In 1935, Oliveira and Luiz Flores de Moraes Rego noted the presence of
typically Euramerican plants (Sphenopteris) in the Pennsylvanian of the Parnaíba
Basin, i.e., in the northwestern region of the Gondwanan Continent. In the same
year, Moraes Rego suggested a possible correlation among the sediments of the Poti,
Piauí and Pedra de Fogo formations (Parnaíba Basin) and the formations of Tubarão
and Passa Dois groups (Paraná Basin) based on the presence of Psaronius in
Northeastern Brazil and Pecopteris and Tietea in Southern Brazil. In 1936, Oliveira
erected the species Dadoxylon derbyi.
Reinhard Maack was a German geologist and geographer naturalized Brazilian
who made great contributions to the areas of geology, palaeontology, geography,
cartography, and biology. After observing several aspects of the geology of Southern
Africa, Maack settled in Curitiba (PR) in 1923, where he lived most of his life and
initiated many young people into science. Observing the similarities between Late
Palaeozoic stratigraphical sequences in Africa and the Paraná Basin, he contributed
to the Continental Drift Theory and the supercontinent Gondwana. He also studied
Permian lycopsids of the Paraná Basin, publishing relevant articles on Lycopodiopsis
derbyi Renault (Maack 1929, 1947).

The Fourth Republic of the United States of Brazil (1946–1964):

Phase of Young Brazilian and Foreign Geologists and
Palaeontologists

After the end of World War II, with the fall of authoritarian governments in Europe,
the international political moment indicated that the “Vargas Age” or “New State”
was coming to an end. With no more political support to continue as a dictator,
Getúlio Vargas resigned his position on October 1945. With the fall of Vargas, a new
period began of Brazilian republican history known as the “Fourth Republic of the
United States of Brazil” (1946–1964).
The rapid industrialization of the country during Juscelino Kubitschek’s presi-
dency (1956–1960) led to a national demand for Geology experts, both in public
institutions and private enterprises. Thus, in 1957, the Geologists Formation Pro-
gram (CAGE) was initiated within the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The first group of geologists trained in the country (1957–1960) was the result of
the opening of four Geology courses, initiated by the Federal Government: in the
UFPE, Recife, PE State; in the EMOP/UFOP, Ouro Preto, MG State; in the USP, São
Paulo, SP State; and in the UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS State.
During the 1940s, some young Brazilian Geologists and Palaeontologists
accessed palaeobotany in partnership with immigrant or foreign visiting researchers.
Among them were: Octavio Barbosa (1907–1997) (Fig. 5a); Jordano Maniero
(1910–2003); Elias Dolianiti (1911–1985) (Fig. 5b); Richard Kräusel (1890–
1966) (Fig. 5c); Friedrich Wilhelm Sommer (1907–1994); and Josué Camargo
Mendes (1918–1991) (Fig. 5d).
18 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Fig. 5 Palaeobotanists: (a) Octavio Barbosa (11); (b) Elias Dolianiti (12); (c) Richard Kräusel (13);
(d) Josué Camargo Mendes (15); (e) Lélia Duarte da Silva Santos (12); (f) José Henrique Millan
(14); (g) Mary E.C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira (16); (h) Sergio Archangelsky (16); (i) Denise Pons (17);
(j) John Rigby (16); (k) Sergio Mezzalira (9); (l) Diana Mussa (12); (m) Margot Guerra-Sommer
(16); (n) Oscar Rösler (17); and (o) Miriam Cazzulo-Klepzig (16)
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 19

Octavio Barbosa was a geologist. Since the 1930s, he had worked in the old
SGMB, now under the acronym DGM. He published over 200 papers on geology
and mineral prospection. Among those papers, he published on Palaeobotany,
defining the ages of the Gondwana floras of the Paraná Basin (Barbosa 1958), and
also worked on Parataxopitys americana, a fossil wood of the Irati Formation
(Kungurian of the Paraná Basin). He was the first researcher to detect the taphoflora
of Monte Mor (SP), registering it as a Pennsylvanian flora before the Glossopteris
flora.
Jordano Maniero, an employee of the Adolfo Lutz Institute, researcher of
conifer fossil woods, proposed the creation of a new species: Dadoxylon whitei
Maniero, based on fossil wood from the Irati Formation, in Assistência, municipality
of Rio Claro (SP) (Maniero 1944). In Maniero (1945), he observed new structures in
D. derbyi Oliveira, using the peel method for the first time in Brazil on a specimen
coming from the same place as the holotype: Itararé Group in Casa Branca munic-
ipality (SP). Maniero (1946) made observations about D. nummularium White, a
species from the Estrada Nova Formation of São Sepé (RS) and about new fossil
wood from South Brazil.
Elias Dolianiti, who became “the first Brazilian palaeobotanist,” began his
research around 1944 as a naturalist of the DNPM when he travelled to the coalfield
region of Santa Catarina collecting around 3000 fossil specimens of the Glossopteris
flora. He became a great specialist of this flora in Brazil, registering several species
from Rio Grande do Sul to Paraná, especially those collected in Santa Catarina State
between 1946 and 1956 (Cruz 1985).
Dolianiti published his first paper as a note on the occurrence of Sphenozamites
Brongniart in the Brazilian fossil flora, and he noticed the occurrence of new forms
in the Glossopteris flora of Southern Brazil (Dolianiti 1945, 1946).
He evaluated the state of the art of Brazilian palaeobotany by carrying out a
meticulous historical survey of the known species to date (Dolianiti 1948). He also
studied plant fossils of the Fonseca Cenozoic Basin (MG) from 1946 to 1950 and, in
1954, reviewed the flora of Teresina (Parnaíba Basin, PI).
Dolianiti identified Nypa pernambucensis from the Maria Farinha Formation,
Palaeocene of the Paraíba Basin, represented by eight specimens of fossil fruits,
collected between Olinda and Paulista municipalities (PE) and considered it as an
Arecaceae of small size with a large fruit coming from the Eastern Hemisphere
(Dolianiti 1955).
Considering a request from the National Research Council (CNPq), Dolianiti
accompanied Richard Kräusel in his fieldwork to the Parnaíba Basin collecting Early
Devonian fossils of the Picos Formation (Kräusel and Dolianiti 1957), and to the
Paraná Basin, which resulted in excellent work on gymnosperm woods of the
Brazilian Palaeozoic (Kräusel and Dolianiti 1958).
In the decades of 1960 and 1970, Dolianiti continued his research on the Brazilian
Palaeozoic and Mesozoic floras. He led scholars and actively participated in the
fieldwork. In the Palaeozoic of the Paraná Basin, he created a new species of
glossopterids fructification Ottokaria santa catarinae (Dolianiti 1971).
20 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

In the 1980s, with José Henrique Millan, Dolianiti began investigations of the
Cerquilho flora (SP).
During the International Symposium on the Carboniferous and Permian Systems
in South America, Dolianiti talked with propriety on the presence of two Carbonif-
erous and Permian floristic regions in Brazil, previously observed by some authors:
one in the northern area of the country (Parnaíba Basin), floristically Euramerican
and another, Gondwanan, in the southern area, Paraná Basin (Dolianiti 1972).
He had a profound knowledge of Brazilian palaeobotany, and despite the diffi-
culties in researching at that time, he published more than 30 scientific papers
dealing with plant fossils of the different sedimentary basins of Brazil, all of them
known and appreciated by experts. The certainty, clarity and accuracy demonstrated
in his works led to his national and international recognition as an authority on
Gondwanan Flora. In our view, he undoubtedly deserves the title of “Father of the
Brazilian Palaeobotany.”
Richard Oswald Karl Kräusel, from the University of Frankfurt, worked from
1920 to 1952 as a lecturer and professor at that University, and from 1938 to 1946, he
became the curator of the Department of Palaeobotany at the Senckenberg Research
Institute. He travelled through various continents during his investigations of fossil
plants and came to South America several times, in 1924, 1947, and 1956/1957.
Besides the already mentioned works in partnership with Dolianiti, he produced an
essential monograph on the revision of the petrified genus Lycopodiopsis and other
Permian lycopsids of the Paraná Basin reviewing all previous information and
adding observations based on new material (Kräusel 1961).
Friedrich Wilhelm Sommer (see in this book, chapter 2, figure 1b, about History
of Palynology in Brazil), Austrian and naturalized Brazilian, did some incursions
into the field of Palaeobotany, despite being more inclined to Micropalaeontology.
Among his works are studies from the end of the 1950s and beginning of 1960s on
algal fossils of Spongiophytales, Tasmanales, and Protosalviniales of the Parnaíba
and Paraná basins and on Pennsylvanian and Permian megaspores of the Paraná
Basin. He worked at the DGM/DNPM in Rio de Janeiro.
Josué Camargo Mendes was a palaeontologist of the USP with expertise in
mollusca and brachiopoda. As stratigrapher, he defined the position of the occur-
rence level of Lycopodiopsis derbyi in the Piracicaba municipality (SP) (Mendes
1944, Mendes and Mezzalira 1946). He advised many invertebrate palaeontologists,
and in the 1970s, he supervised the first USP palaeobotany master’s dissertation of
Riuiti Yoshida and the doctorate of at least three palaeobotanists: Lélia Duarte (Fig.
5e), José Henrique Millan (Fig. 5f), and Mary E. Bernardes-de-Oliveira (Fig.
5g).
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 21

The Fifth Republic of the Federative Republic of Brazil – Military

Dictatorship (1964–1985): Phase of the Flowering of a National
Palaeobotany

During the Military Dictatorship period, more precisely from 1968 to 1972,
CAPES, the foundation of the Ministry of Education of Brazil, financed the begin-
ning of several postgraduate courses in Geology throughout Brazil. These courses
strengthened expertise in the palaeontological sciences, including palaeobotany,
mainly at the UFRGS, USP, and UFRJ. Foreign researchers such as Sergio
Archangelsky (Fig. 5h) from Argentina, Denise Pons (Fig. 5i) from France, and
John Rigby (Fig. 5j) from Australia, were specially invited to encourage the study of
palaeobotany among graduate geologists and biologists of RS and SP states.
Palaeobotanical research at USP began in 1966, with the geologist Riuiti
Yoshida publishing a note on a glossopterid tuft from the Irapuá coal measures,
Rio Bonito Formation, Criciúma municipality (SC). Two years later, he defended his
master’s dissertation at the former FFCL/USP, under the guidance of Josué Camargo
Mendes. He proposed a new Gondwanan genus and species (Krauselcladus
canoinhensis Yoshida) for coniferous fossils of the Guadalupian Estrada Nova
Formation, from the North of the State of Santa Catarina (Yoshida 1970).
During those days, researchers already working in Palaeobotany such as Sergio
Mezzalira (1920–2009) (Fig. 5k); Lélia Duarte (1933–2013); Diana Mussa
(1932–2007) (Fig. 5l); and José Henrique Millan (1937) went to USP to take
postgraduate courses and received their doctorate.
Sergio Mezzalira worked at DGM/DNPM, Rio de Janeiro, from 1942 to 1946.
Mezzalira (1945) conducted scientific fieldwork, locating the Corumbataí Formation
fossil plants in Rio Claro municipality (SP) for the first time. In 1946, he moved to
the Geographical and Geological Institute of São Paulo (now IG-SMASP) and
started cataloguing the fossil collection. He was a naturalist with a doctorate from
IGc/USP (1973) on the stratigraphy of the Bauru Group, under the guidance of Josué
C. Mendes. Though an expert on bivalves and crustaceans of the Passa Dois and
Bauru groups, he often studied Permian, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic fossil plants too.
From 1953 to 1960, he developed a project mapping the contact of the Corumbataí
and Irati formations in the areas of São Carlos, Rio Claro, Piracicaba, Araras, and
Casa Branca municipalities (SP), locating and collecting many fossils. Mezzalira
(1957) recorded new occurrences of lycopsids in Piracicaba, glossopterids in Tatuí
and the fructification Plumsteadiella at the Tubarão Group. He described Cenozoic
plant fossils from the Rio Claro Formation, in Vargem Grande do Sul municipality
(SP), erecting a new fossil species of Melastomataceae: Tibouchina izildaisabelae.
Lélia Duarte da Silva Santos was a naturalist with a doctorate from IGc/USP,
1972, under the guidance of Josué C. Mendes. Beginning her studies in
palaeobotany at DNPM in 1956, she became one of the most important Brazilian
palaeobotanists and had trained in the New York Botanical Garden, in the
Smithsonian Institution; the Palaeontology Laboratory of the University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley; the Palaeobotany Sector of the Natural History Museum in London;
the MNHN of Paris; the Laboratoire de la Faculté de Sciences of the Paris VI
22 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

University; and the Palaeontological Research Institute of the University of

Tübingen, Germany. She worked in DNPM as a researcher with expertise in
Cretaceous and Cenozoic taphofloras and later as a professor at UERJ and curator
of the collection of fossil plants from the Department of Animal and Plant Biology of
the UERJ. Duarte was part of the first Organizing Committee of the Latin American
Association of Palaeobotany and Palynology (ALPP). In 1971, she made with
Adelia Japiassú a comprehensive survey of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic floras of
Brazil. Her contribution to Brazilian palaeobotany was vast, having worked on Early
Cretaceous plant fossils of the Crato Formation in the Araripe Basin; of the Codó
Formation, in the Parnaíba Basin; and of the Areado Formation in the São Francisco
Basin. She carried out research on Palaeogene floras of the Fonseca and Gandarela
basins (MG) and of the Tremembé Formation, Taubaté Basin; Neogene (Miocene)
flora of the Pirabas Formation, in PA (Duarte 2004). She revised the flora of the
Solimões Formation, Acre Basin, and studied with her students several Quaternary
floras of travertine limestones of Northeastern Brazil, in Russas (CE), Umbuzeiro
(PB), and Morro do Chapéu (BA).
Diana Mussa was a Brazilian naturalist and geologist with in-depth knowledge
of plant anatomy, biostratigraphy, and geology. As a trainee at DNPM in the early
1950s, she began her scientific career under the guidance of F.W. Sommer, E.
Dolianiti, and R. Kräusel. She also practised with the no less eminent plant anato-
mists F.R. Milanez of the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro and C. Mainieri at the
Technological and Research Institute of São Paulo.
Her massive scientific output began in 1956 with a paper entitled Síntese sobre
Pteridospermas, published in a scientific review of the University of Brazil. During
the 1960s, she worked as a geologist in CNEN and DNPM – Rio de Janeiro (RJ). In
1973, after an interruption of 5 years, she came back for her postgraduation at the
USP and devoted herself to the most extensive study ever conducted in Brazil on
Permian fossil woods of the Paraná Basin. Her doctoral thesis entitled
“Lignitafofloras permianas da Bacia do Paraná, Brasil (Estados de São Paulo e
Santa Catarina)”/“Permian lignitaphofloras of the Paraná Basin, Brazil (São Paulo
and Santa Catarina States)” was defended in 1982. In the early 1980s, Diana Mussa
assumed her position as a researcher at the DNPM – Rio de Janeiro, but in 1983, was
recruited by the National Museum (MN/UFRJ). There, she carried out the research,
advised students and taught various subjects both in the Department of Geology and
Palaeontology (MN/UFRJ) and the Institute of Geosciences (IGEO/UFRJ). Her
scientific production, with about 50 high-level papers, involves mainly Palaeozoic,
Mesozoic, and Cenozoic wood studies, but also some plant impressions from
Devonian to Cretaceous. Based on anatomy, she provided ontogenetic,
palaeoclimatic, taphonomic, and phylogenetic interpretations of fossil plants. She
worked with plant fossils from almost all Brazilian continental sedimentary basins:
Acre, Parnaíba, Lima Campos, Potiguar, Sergipe-Alagoas, Jatobá, Itaboraí, with
particular attention to those from Gondwana of the Paraná Basin. She erected
about 30 genera of plant fossils, among them: Zollernioxylon Mussa (1959); Pro-
topodocarpitys Mussa 1974; Palaeopinuxylon Mussa 1975; Brasilestiloxylon Mussa
1978; Solenobrasilioxylon Mussa 1978; Austroscleromedulloxylon Mussa 1980;
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 23

Schopfiicaulia Mussa 1982; Krauselpitys Mussa 1986; Paulistoxylon Mussa 1986;

Araguainorachis Mussa et Coimbra 1987; Cyclomedulloxylon Mussa et Coimbra
1987; Teresinoxylon Mussa, Caldas, Lima Filho et Rösler 1989; Edwardsnella
Mussa, Borghi, Bergamaschi et al. 1996; and Petriaia Mussa, Borghi, Bergamaschi
et al. 1996. She left an outstanding collection, with over a thousand slides of fossil
woods and trained many graduate students. With an outstanding career, she is
internationally recognized as Brazil’s greatest palaeoxylologist and a world authority
for Devonian floras, as expressed by Gussella (2015).
José Henrique Millan, in 1972, still during the Military Dictatorship period, was
a palaeobotanist who went to the USP to obtain his doctorate. As a researcher at MN/
UFRJ, he published many papers, especially on Gondwana seeds of the Paraná Basin
(e.g., Millan 1967). In 1971, he published on a cauline axis bearing a whorl of
Noeggerathiopsis leaves. His thesis dealt with Pennsylvanian pre-Glossopteris flora
of the Itararé Group, Paraná Basin, occurring in Monte Mor municipality (SP). This
is a very comprehensive study of the components of that taphoflora registering the
first occurrence of conifers and Ginkgophyllum in the Paraná Basin. Millan also
studied the lycopsids of the Itararé Group from Monte Mor (SP) exhaustively. He
discovered many other occurrences of interglacial floras of the Itararé Group in São
Paulo State, some with Dolianiti (e.g., Dolianiti and Millan 1973). Beyond the study
of the Monte Mor taphoflora, he also studied Pennsylvanian taphofloristic occur-
rences in Itapeva, and Early Cisuralian occurrences in Cerquilho (SP), both Itararé
Group. He was a great student of the interglacial Itararé Group floras in SP, in
addition has also studied the flora of the Rio Bonito Formation in Santa Catarina
State.
At this time, new Brazilian palaeobotanists of the “generation 1968–1985” were
trained in important palaeobotanical centers abroad. For instance, three went to study
in the Laboratoire de Paléobotanique du M. Le Prof. Édouard Boureau, Université
Paris VI, France: Carlos A. Bortoluzzi from UFRGS, was trained in 1972–1973;
Mary E.C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira from USP got a DEA (“Diplôme d’Etudes
Approfondies” between master’s and doctorate) in 1973–1974; Margot Guerra-
Sommer from UFRGS trained between 1980 and 1981 (Fig. 5m); and Oscar Rösler
(1938–2018) from USP was trained at the University of London, England, with Prof.
William Gilbert Chaloner, between 1975 and 1976 (Fig. 5n). Other contemporary
palaeobotanists were Miriam Cazzulo-Klepzig (Fig. 5o) and Tânia Lindner Dutra
(Fig. 6a).
Among the graduate students to specialize in palaeobotany in Rio Grande do Sul,
at that time (1968–1980), is Carlos Alfredo Bortoluzzi, who studied mainly the
Permian coal deposits in SC and the Dicroidium flora of the Triassic Santa Maria
Formation (Paraná Basin, in RS) (e.g., Bortoluzzi et al. 1985).
Oscar Rösler was a palaeobotanist graduated from the University of Paraná, with
a master’s degree from UFRGS and doctorate from USP (1972). He studied the
Cisuralian flora of the Triunfo Member, lower portion of the Rio Bonito Formation
in São João de Triunfo and Cambuí (PR). Based on his thesis material, he proposed
three new species of sphenopsids (Sphenophyllum brasiliensis, Annularia
occidentalis, and A. readi) associated with fern remains, glossopterids, and lycopsids
24 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Fig. 6 Palaeobotanists: (a) Tania Lindner Dutra (16); (b) David Dilcher (16); (c) Barbara Mohr
(17); (d) Lutz Kunzmann (16); (e) Clément Coiffard (16); (f) Roberto Iannuzzi (16); (g) Daiana
Rockenbach Boardman (16); (h) Esther R. S. Pinheiro (16); (i) Francine Kurzawe (16); (j) Graciela
Pereira Tybusch (16); (k) Juliane Marques de Souza (16); (l) Nelsa Cardoso (16); (m) André Jasper
(16); (n) Isabela Degani-Schmidt (16); and (o) Ronaldo Barboni (16)
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 25

(Rösler 1974). He made many collections of Carboniferous and Permian plant fossils
throughout the Paraná Basin, deposited in the Scientific Collection at IGc/USP, and
traced many new fossil occurrences. He became an essential reference for
palaeofloristic Lower Gondwana succession of the Paraná Basin when he proposed
a palaeofloristic succession scheme for the Gondwana I sequence including Itararé,
Guatá, and Passa Dois groups (Rösler 1978). He has authored more than 50 papers
on the floras of the Tubarão and Passa Dois groups and supervised several master’s
degrees and doctorates in Palaeobotany at USP. In 1978, with M. R. de Lima and M.
E. Bernardes-de-Oliveira, he started the Meetings of Palaeobotanists and Palynolo-
gists (RPPs) in IGc/USP. These events have come to constitute a stimulus and
integration tool for palaeobotany students from all over the country and subse-
quently, after the eighth meeting, leaving the limits of the USP, these events gave
rise to the Brazilian Palaeobotany Symposia in other Brazilian institutions. As O.
Rösler foresaw in 1980, in an evaluation of the 2nd RPP: “The symposium was
successful and will certainly stimulate the realization of future events of this nature,
because it has been shown that they stimulate scientific production in this area, and
they constitute unique opportunities for discussing specific topics of direct interest to
our palaeobotanical community.”
Mary Elizabeth C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira, a geologist from USP, got her
doctorate from USP (1977) on “Glossopteris flora of the Late Cisuralian Siderópolis
Member, upper portion of the Rio Bonito Formation in the state of Santa Catarina.”
As a professor of IGc/USP since 1968, she operates in palaeobotanical research, with
many publications in the late Palaeozoic Tubarão Supergroup, Paraná Basin (Pre-
Glossopteris or Interglacial and Glossopteris floras), erecting genera and species
such as: Ponsotheca lobifolia, Arberiopsis boureaui, Cordaicarpus rocha-camposi,
C. irapuensis, Samaropsis millaniana, S. sancti-marci, Buriadia mendesi, etc. She
coordinated, from the Brazilian side, the “First International Scientific Cooperation
Brazil-India Project of CNPq” to study intercontinental relations of Glossopteris
flora, resulting in many papers co-authored between Indian and Brazilian researchers
such as “Floristic similarities of the Artinskian Siderópolis Member macroflora, Rio
Bonito Formation (Paraná Basin, Brazil) with Cisuralian palaeofloras of India”
(Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al. 2016b). Considering the Early Cretaceous Crato flora
in the Araripe Basin, she has developed studies on ferns, gymnosperms, basal
angiosperms, and magnoliids. She also has been co-authoring with many foreign
researchers like David Dilcher (Fig. 6b); Barbara Mohr (Fig. 6c); Lutz
Kunzmann (Fig. 6d); Clement Coiffard (Fig. 6e); and Denise Pons. She worked
with them identifying or erecting new genera and species, for example: Ruffordia
goeppertii, Welwitschiostrobus murili, Duartenia araripensis, Pseudofrenelopsis
capillata, Hexagyne philippiana, Schenkeriphyllum glanduliferum, Friedsellowia
gracifolia, Jaguariba wiersemana, Spixiarum kipea, Cariria orbiculiconiformis,
Pluricarpellatia peltata, Novaolindia dubia, Endressinia brasiliana among others).
In Brazilian Palaeogene and Neogene deposits, Bernardes–de–Oliveira has devel-
oped studies on phytofossils of the Continental Rift of Southeast Brazil basins: of the
Taubaté and São Paulo basins (e.g., Bauhinia aff. B. divaricata, Leandra sp.,
Microgramma sp.); of Aiuruoca Basin (e.g., Nectandra, Annona, Caesalpinia
26 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

veraechinataformis, Machaerium aiuruoquense, M. palaeogenum); and in the Rio

Claro Formation of Peripheral Depression, in the Jaguariúna municipality (SP) (e.g.,
Ocotea fittipaldii, Typha meli, Aspidosperma duartei). Her publications are co-
authored with her students and several Brazilian, South American, European, Indian,
and North American researchers.
Margot Guerra-Sommer, professor at UFRGS since 1975, structured the
palaeobotany sector and implemented palaeobotanical research in the Post-
graduation Program at IGEO/UFRGS. As a palaeobotanist, she operates with den-
drological and palaeoclimatic determinations of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic
taphofloristic associations of the supersequences Gondwana I and Gondwana II of
the Paraná Basin and taphoflora associations of the Lower Cretaceous of the Araripe
Basin. She analyzes them from a taxonomic, taphonomic, palaeoecological,
palaeoclimatic, relative, and absolute (radiometry) dating point of view. She also
studies plant palaeoatmospheric indicators from cuticles of the Glossopteris flora and
charcoal, and she made palynofacies studies and organic geochemistry of Quater-
nary sediments for palaeoenvironmental, palaeoclimatic, and palaeoecological inter-
pretations. She has been endeavoring to train new palaeobotanists. Among her
numerous works is the synthesis of her studies on the Gondwana floras of the
Upper Paleozoic of Rio Grande do Sul (Guerra-Sommer and Cazzulo-Klepzig
2001) and on dendroclimatic analyses of the South Brazilian Gondwana (Guerra-
Sommer et al. 2007).
Miriam Cazzulo-Klepzig, with a doctorate at UFRGS (2001), is studying
Permian taphofloras of the Paraná Basin from the Itararé Group to the Rio do
Rasto Formation (Passa Dois Group). She works as a palynologist, but also pub-
lishes on the macroflora from taxonomic, palaeoclimatic, palaeoecological, and
facies perspectives having produced more than 40 publications since 1979.
Among her papers, there is one on the palaeoflora of Itararé, in RS (Cazzulo-Klepzig
and Guerra–Sommer 1984), and another on the Rio Bonito Formation palaeoflora in
RS (Cazzulo-Klepzig et al. 2007).
Tânia Lindner Dutra is a naturalist with specialization in geology, began her
palaeobotanical studies in 1974, and made a doctorate in Cretaceous-Tertiary floras
of Antarctica (1997). Lecturer at UNISINOS in São Leopoldo (RS), Dutra is
practically the only Brazilian palaeobotanist to develop studies of Mesozoic and
Cenozoic floras of the Antarctic Peninsula and its palaeoecological, palaeogeo-
graphical, and biostratigraphical implications. She makes studies on the extant
Araucaria Forest of meridional Brazil, southern South America, and Australia
correlating it with Palaeogene floras of Antarctica. She also develops studies with
Mesozoic floras of Southern Brazil and has formed other palaeobotanists. Among
her papers are such for Antarctica (Dutra 2004); for Triassic floras of the Santa Maria
Formation, Paraná Basin (Barboni and Dutra 2015); for Lower Cretaceous of the
Parnaíba Basin (Lindoso et al. 2018).
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 27

The Sixth Republic of the Federative Republic of Brazil (1985 to

Date): Phase of Brazilian New Generation Palaeobotanists 1990–
2020

During the Sixth Republic (1985 to Date), the previous “Generation 1968–1985” has
joined or attracted a new generation of Brazilian palaeobotanists. This new gener-
ation, here called “Generation 1990–2020,” began to emerge in the 1990s and has
been forming and developing to the present day with great boldness, innovation, and
training. In addition to working with fossil leaf and stem impressions, this generation
went to work more with the anatomy of petrified and cuticle fossils and charcoals.
“Generation 1990–2020” works with revisions of taxonomy in impressions, but also
with anatomy, phytostratigraphy, palaeoecology, plant facies, taphonomy,
palaeoclimate, and palaeophytogeography, applying new techniques. Among its
members, it is possible to mention the following palaeobotanists: Roberto Iannuzzi
(Fig. 6f), Carlos E. Vieira, Daiana Boardman (Fig. 6g), Esther R. S. Pinheiro
(Fig. 6h), Francine Kurzawe (Fig. 6i), Graciela Tybusch (Fig. 6j), G. A. Roesler,
Juliane Marques de Souza (Fig. 6k), Nelsa Cardoso (Fig. 6l), Simone Carolina
Sousa e Silva, André Jasper (Fig. 6m), Isabela Degani-Schmidt (Fig. 6n), Etiene
Fabbrin Pires, Ronaldo Barboni (Fig. 6o), Robson Tadeu Bolzon, Sheila
Merlotti, Luciana Witovisk Gussella (Fig. 7a), Ingrid de Melo Milagres (Fig.
7b), Fernando C. Fittipaldi (Fig. 7c), Rosemarie Rohn Davies (Fig. 7d), Fresia
Ricardi-Branco (Fig. 7e), Paula Sucerquia (Fig. 7f), Tatiane Marinho Vieira
Tavares (Fig. 7g), Rodrigo Neregato (Fig. 7h), Jean Carlo Mari Fanton (Fig. 7i),
Rafael de Souza Faria (Fig. 7j), Marjorie Kaufmann (Fig. 7k), Isabel Cortez
Christiano-de-Souza (Fig. 7l), Alcina Magnolia Franca Barreto, Flaviana Jorge
de Lima (Fig. 7m) and Ronny Roessler (Fig 7n).

(a) The new “Generation 1990–2020” in Meridional Brazil

Roberto Iannuzzi is a professor at IGeo-UFRGS and develops palaeobotanical

research with taxonomic, palaeogeographic, stratigraphic, and palaeoecological
interpretations in both the Carboniferous Rhacopteris flora and the Permian
Glossopteris flora. He began his palaeobotanical studies under the guidance of O.
Rösler (master’s degree on “Revaluation of the Carboniferous Flora of the Poti
Formation, Parnaíba Basin,” at USP, in 1994). He got his doctorate analyzing
impressions in Mississippian floras of Bolivian Altiplan and its importance in the
palaeofloristic evolution of South America, at UFRGS, in 1999, under guidance of
M. Guerra- Sommer. Later, he studied the Permian floras of the Teresina and Rio do
Rasto formations in SC and PR states. He examined the biostratigraphical implica-
tions of Dicroidium Triassic flora of Rio Grande do Sul, with M. Guerra-Sommer.
After studying some Permian filicopsids, sphenopsids, and ginkgopsids of the
Paraná Basin, he began to analyze, especially with O. Rösler, South American
palaeophytogeography and biostratigraphy to observe the floristic migration and
translatitudinal displacement of the continent during the late Paleozoic. With his
team and other collaborating researchers, he has carried out herbivory analyses and
28 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Fig. 7 (continued)
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 29

insect-plant interactions in leaves of the Paraná Basin and the Bolivian Altiplan. He
recorded the presence of herbivory in Botrychiopsis leaves in Western Gondwana for
the first time. Without abandoning his studies on the Mississippian, he also extended
them to Permian plants (Asterotheca, Pecopteris, and Glossopteris) and created an
overview of the floristic succession of the Permian of the Paraná Basin with
palynologist Paulo Alves de Souza (Iannuzzi and Souza 2005).
Along with detailed taxonomic studies of glossopterids, sphenopsids,
platyspermic seeds, and pecopterids of the late Palaeozoic of RS State, he has carried
out, with his students, taxonomic revaluations of the genera Gangamopteris and
Rubidgea, Cordaicarpus, fructifications of pteridosperms, and described new spe-
cies of Phyllotheca; reevaluated the Poti flora (Late Visean) and reinterpreted
Kegelidium lamegoi Dolianiti of the Parnaíba Basin. He has also studied the
Quaternary flora of Catalan (GO). At that time, he was also devoted to the study
of Cisuralian postglacial palaeofloristic succession of RS State. He had observed the
genus Paulophyton in the Carboniferous of Paracas, Peru. With his team, he is
studying the taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and phytogeography of the Devonian
palaeoflora of the Paraná Basin. Among his research group, it is possible to cite:
Carlos Eduardo Lucas Vieira; Daiana Rockenbach Boardman; Esther Regina
de Souza Pinheiro; Francine Kurzawe; Graciela Pereira Tybusch; Juliane
Marques de Souza; Nelsa Cardoso; Simone Carolina Sousa e Silva; and others
carrying out studies in taxonomy, palaeoecology, palaeophytogeography, insect-
plant interaction studies of Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic palaeofloras.
Among the works developed by these new researchers, it is possible to cite the
following:
Carlos Eduardo Lucas Vieira – working in UNISINOS, has developed studies
with Cisuralian and Lopingian pecopterids from the Paraná Basin and other South
American occurrences (Vieira and Iannuzzi 2000, Vieira et al. 2007).
Daiana Rockenbach Boardman – a biologist with a PhD from UFRGS in 2011,
has been working with early Permian palaeobotany and palynology of the Rio
Bonito Formation, mainly related to the sphenopsid group (Boardman and Iannuzzi
2010; Boardman et al. 2016).
Esther Regina de Souza Pinheiro – a palaeontologist from UFRGS, working in
Palaeobotany, with emphasis on insect-plant interactions (Pinheiro et al. 2015;
Pinheiro et al. 2016).
Francine Kurzawe – biologist with a PhD from UFRGS and postdoc from the
Royal Holloway University of London and UFPR, working with taxonomy of
Paleozoic petrified woods (Kurzawe et al. 2012). During a research stay at the

Fig. 7 Palaeobotanists: (a) Luciana Witovisk Gussella (16); (b) Ingrid Milagres (16); (c) Fernando
Cilento Fittipaldi (18); (d) Rosemarie Rohn Davies (16); (e) Fresia Soledad Ricardi Torres Branco
(16); (f) Paula Sucerquia (16); (g) Tatiane Marinho Vieira Tavares (16); (h) Rodrigo Neregato (16);
(i) Jean Carlo Mari Fanton (16); (j) Rafael de Souza Faria (16); (k) Marjorie Kauffmann (16); (l)
Isabel Cortez Christiano-de-Souza (16); (m) Flaviana Jorge de Lima (16); and (n) Ronny Rößler
(16)
30 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, Germany, working with Ronny Roessler (Fig.
7o) she discovered several new taxa of gymnosperm woods, which became part of
some of her publications (Kurzawe et al. 2013a, b).
Graciela Pereira Tybusch – biologist with PhD in geosciences from the UFRGS
in 2013. She is devoted to the glossopterids taxonomy, working with revision of
Gangamopteris, Rubidgea, and Glossopteris of the Paraná Basin (Tybusch and
Iannuzzi 2008; Tybusch et al. 2016).
Juliane Marques de Souza – professor of the UERR, Master and PhD in
palaeontology from UFRGS, with postdoc in BSIP (Índia) on seeds and
glossopterids fructifications of Paraná Basin (Marques-de-Souza and Iannuzzi
2012, 2016). She is now developing studies of the Meso–Cenozoic floras of the
Tacutu Sedimentary Basin (RR).
Nelsa Cardoso – graduated in biological sciences, PhD in palaeoclimatology
(Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany) and geosciences, palaeobotany
(URFGS). She is a visiting palaeobotany researcher at UFAC. She studied Carbon-
iferous Bryophyta of the Paraná Basin and Cenozoic pteridophytes of Catalão
(Cardoso and Iannuzzi 2004, 2006). Her research focusses now on the forensic
sciences, palaeobotany, and palaeoclimate in South America. She is currently teach-
ing at PUCRS.
Simone Carolina Sousa e Silva – graduated in biological sciences at UFU, 1997
and PhD in palaeobotany at UFRGS (2013). She specialized in botany with empha-
sis on structural botany working mainly on the foliar architecture of Cerrado species
applied to taxonomy, palaeobotany, and scientific illustration. She also studied the
palaeoflora of the Carbonate Complexe Catalão I, GO State (Sousa e Silva 2013).
André Jasper – professor of Vale do Taquari University (UNIVATES), in
Lageado municipality, RS. He graduated in biological sciences at UNISINOS, São
Leopoldo, RS, and obtained his Master and PhD in Sciences (geosciences – strati-
graphic palaeontology – palaeobotany) at UFRGS. He did his postdoctorate at the
Eberhard-Karls–Universität Tübingen, Germany. In palaeobotany, he operates in the
areas of plant palaeowildfires through the analysis and microscopic study of char-
coals, Gondwana palaeofloras and palaeoecology. Jasper began his palaeobotanical
studies in 1999 with arborescent cormophytic lycophytes of the Rio Bonito Forma-
tion under the guidance of Guerra–Sommer. He also studied the genus Botrychiopsis
and its biostratigraphic implications in the Paraná Basin. He has devoted his studies
towards Permian and Triassic palaeowildfires and their relations with levels of
atmospheric oxygen, observing palaeoecology of the layers related to coal in the
Paraná Basin where he registered, with other co-authors, the presence of Lycopodites
in the Lower Permian. He has also developed studies in the Parnaíba and Roraima
basins in Brazil and in African and Indian basins with many collaborators and
students. Jasper is the Brazilian coordinator for the “Second International Scientific
Cooperation Brazil-India Project of CNPq.” Among his research group, it is possible
to cite: Aline Maria Constantin, Daiane dos Santos Cardoso, Isa Carla
Osterkamp, Joseline Manfroi, Mariela Ines Secchi, and Marjorie Kauffmann,
making geological mapping and palaeontological survey of fossilized trees of the
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 31

Parnaíba Basin (TO) and palaeoenvironmental analyses inferred by studies of

charcoals on a global scale (Jasper et al. 2011, 2013, 2017).
Isabela Degani-Schmidt graduated in biological sciences at UFRGS. She did her
master’s and doctorate at the same university under the guidance from Guerra-
Sommer. With other researchers, Degani-Schmidt carried out palaeoenvironmental
interpretations in the Paraná Basin based on charcoalified logs in peat-forming
environments and epidermal morphologies and stomatal density of Glossopteris
leaves erected a new species of the genus Glossopteris (G. pubescens) and studied
the effects of volcanic ash on Permian peatland. Degani–Smith also made correla-
tions of solenoid woods of the Irati Formation (Brazil) and the Upper Barakar (India)
and radioisotopic tonstein dating for geochronological correlations in southern
Brazil. She develops works, co-authored with Guerra-Sommer and others, on
ginkgophyte logs of the Rio Grande do Sul Triassic; Albian/Cenomanian conifer
logs of the Parnaíba Basin and Cisuralian Agathoxylon type wood of the Paraná
Basin (Degani-Schmidt and Guerra-Sommer 2016).
Etiene Fabbrin Pires Oliveira holds a degree in biological sciences from the
Federal University of Santa Maria (2001). Guided by Guerra-Sommer, she made her
master’s in 2003, her PhD in 2008, and carried out postdoctoral studies in 2009 in
geosciences by the UFRGS analyzing dendrological features in the Lower Creta-
ceous of the Araripe and Paraná basins looking for determination of palaeoclimate
regional relations with the Mesozoic global biomes and charcoal studies with several
co-authors (Benício et al. 2015; Jasper et al. 2016; Kauffmann et al. 2016). Cur-
rently, she is an Adjunct Professor III of the UFT working in undergraduate and
postgraduate supervision.
Ronaldo Barboni – Graduated in biology and with Doctorate from the
UNISINOS of São Leopoldo (RS), Ronaldo Barboni stands out among the
palaeobotanists of the “New generation of 1999 to 2020” by his dedication to the
study of Triassic palaeobotany of the Paraná Basin in the region of Santa Maria (RS)
guided by Tania Dutra. Both have carried out several works on bennettitalean
flowers and leaves, corystopermalean leaves, and ginkgoalean reproductive organs
(Barboni and Dutra 2013, 2015).
It is noteworthy that the palaeobotany school of Rio Grande do Sul, which began
under the strong leadership of Margot Guerra-Sommer and expanded by Tania
Dutra, Roberto Iannuzzi, and André Jasper, has stimulated the emergence of a
large group of researchers, which are generating or spreading other researchers to
many parts of the country, such as Robson Tadeu Bolzon of the UFPR; Etiene
Fabbrin Pires Oliveira of the UFT; Juliane Marques de Souza of the UERR; Carlos
E. Vieira of the UNISINOS; Nelsa Cardoso, at PUCRS; other researchers include
Daiana Boardman, Graciela Tybusch, G.A. Roesler, etc., of the UFRGS. Many of
them were mentioned above.

(b) The new “Generation 1990–2020” in Southeastern Brasil: Rio de Janeiro, São
Paulo, Campinas
(b.1) MN/UFRJ: The new “Generation 1990–2020”
32 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Sheila Merlotti, one of the palaeoxylologists still active in the area, grew up
under the guidance of Diana Mussa in the MN/UFRJ. She got her bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in biological sciences from the UFRGS. In 1994, she got her
doctorate from UFRJ with a thesis on lignitaphoflora of the municipality of Pouso
Redondo, SC State, Rio Bonito Formation, Tubarão Supergroup, Paraná Basin,
Brazil: with taxonomic, phylogenetic, taphonomic, palaeoecological, and biostrati-
graphic considerations. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the UFSC with
expertise in palaeobotany. She works mainly on the taxonomy of gymnosperm
woods of the Rio Bonito, Irati, and Serra Alta formations, Permian of the Paraná
Basin. Under her guidance, at least five master’s dissertations have been defended at
UFSC.
Luciana Witovisk Gussella – Biologist from the UFPR and since her graduation
interested in wood anatomy, got her master’s degree from USP in botany studying
Palmae anatomy and her PhD in geosciences from UFRJ (Gussella 2012), analyzing
Antarctic Cretaceous leaves and logs preserved by permineralization, carbonification
and petrification under the guidance of Marcelo Carvalho. Currently, she is a
professor of palaeobotany in the Department of Geology and Palaeontology of the
MN/UFRJ. She operates in palaeobotany, especially Cretaceous logs from the
Larsen Basin, James Ross Island, Antarctica. She is also guiding undergraduate
researchers in plant fossils of the Taubaté Basin (SP) and from the Tucano Central
Sub-Basin (BA).

(b.2) UERJ and UFRJ: The new “Generation 1990–2020”

Another branch of palaeobotany traditionally well developed in Rio de

Janeiro research institutions is the study of Devonian plants of the Paraná Basin.
Specimens of primitive tracheophytes of the Class Rhyniopsida collected from the
Furnas Formation (Early Devonian of the Paraná Basin) were studied by a relatively
large group of UERJ and UFRJ researchers associated with European and some
UFRGS researchers. Among them: Maria Antonieta da Conceição Rodrigues,
Sergio Bergamaschi, Egberto Pereira, Rodolfo Dino, Diana Mussa, Leonardo
Borghi, G. Schubert, Luciano Gandin Machado, Vanessa Maria da Costa
Francisco, Ingrid de Melo Milagres with Philippe Gerrienne (Université de
Liège, Belgium) and Robson Tadeu Bolzon and Margot Guerra-Sommer of the
UFRGS.
Remains of Devonian plants were recognized by these researchers in several
outcrops of the upper levels of the Furnas Formation, notably by Rodrigues et al.
(1989) on the southeastern area of the Paraná Basin, on the northern margin of the
basin by Quadros and Melo (1986) and the northwest margin by Schubert and
Borghi (1991).
From a taxonomic point of view, those primitive continental plants from the
Furnas Formation Lower Devonian (late Lochkovian to Pragian) have been recog-
nized in the southeast area of the basin (Jaguariaíva, Ponta Grossa, Carambeí, and
Tibagi, PR) with the identification of Cooksonia and new taxa presented for this
formation (Bolzón et al. 1994; Mussa et al. 2002).
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 33

Egberto Pereira and Maria Antonieta C. Rodrigues, professors at the UERJ,

are supervising students in the study of the Furnas Formation palaeoflora in coop-
eration with Philippe Gerrienne. Among the students that did master’s dissertations
on this subject were Ingrid de Melo Milagres (2003) on a Devonian taphoflora in
the arch of Ponta Grossa and Bolivia, and Vanessa Maria da Costa Francisco
(2006), on taphonomic studies of the Furnas Formation taphoflora of the Paraná
Basin. Francisco is continuing her doctoral thesis under the guidance of Maria
Antonieta Rodrigues on palaeogeographic aspects of the Siluro-Devonian of the
Paraná Basin based on Psilophytes. The palaeobotanical studies of the Furnas
Formation, of the Ponta Grossa Arch developed quickly under the guidance of
Philippe Gerrienne. Some researchers analyzed the late Lochkovian taphofloristic
content of two phytofossiliferous deposits of the upper level of the Furnas Forma-
tion, located in the Ponta Grossa Arch, east border of the Paraná Basin, in
Jaguariaíva and Ponta Grossa municipalities (PR). That palaeoflora includes numer-
ous records of Cooksonia paranaensis besides Aberlemnia caledonica (Edwards)
Gómez et Gerrienne 2010; Tarrantia sp.; Sporogonites sp.; Hostinella sp.;
Psilophytites sp.; and Edwardsnella campanulate Mussa et al. 1996. In this paper,
they made interesting palaeogeographic considerations about migrations of Eur-
american floras towards the south after the Euramerica and Gondwana collision at
the beginning of the Devonian, and on the morphological adaptations, their forms
underwent due to a colder climate and isolated environments near the south pole
(Milagres et al. 2018).
Another work was produced by the UFRJ researchers’ team on the vascular plants
from the upper part of Furnas Formation in the Carambeí municipality (PR) identi-
fying fertile axes and isolated sporangia of Cooksonia paranaensis (Gerrienne et al.
2001) and Cooksonia sp. and sterile axes like the genus Hostinella Stur 1882
(Machado et al. 2007).

(b.3) USP: The new “Generation 1990–2020”

Under the guidance of Oscar Rösler, important Brazilian palaeobotanists were

formed in USP, and today they work or worked in other Brazilian universities.
Among these are: Fernando Cilento Fittipaldi (1951–2013), Rosemarie Rohn
Davies, and Fresia Ricardi-Branco.
Fernando C. Fittipaldi, naturalist from UNESP–Rio Claro, made his master’s
degree dissertation in USP, studying the cuticular characterization of Glossopteris
communis Feistm., from the Rio Bonito Formation, Paraná Basin. He introduced
cuticular studies in Brazilian palaeobotany with techniques for epidermal cuticles
recovery. Later (1990), in his doctorate in USP, he devoted himself to the study of
plant fossils of the Itaquaquecetuba Formation (São Paulo Cenozoic Basin), analyz-
ing compressions of foliar or reproductive structures of Luehea divaricatiformis,
Schizolobium inaequilaterum, Myrcia cf. M. rostrataformis, Psidium paulense,
Byrsonima bullata, Serjania itaquaquecetubensis, and Serjania lancifolia. In addi-
tion to these, he proposed eight new species of angiosperm fossils (Ocotea
pulchelliformis, Piptadenia tertiaria, Cassia rosleri, Sophora giuliettiae,
34 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Machaerium piranii, Bertolonia coimbrai, Tocoyena riccominii, and Echinodorus

rossiae), a new fern species (Lindsaea pradoi), and a new bryophyte species
(Isotachis simonesi). He worked as researcher in the Geological Institute/SMASP
and as a professor of the Presbiterian Mackenzie University.
Rosemarie Rohn Davies – geologist from the University of São Paulo, is a
professor at the UNESP, in Rio Claro municipality (SP). She works in Palaeobotany,
especially in the Permian of the Paraná and Parnaíba basins. In 1994, she contributed
significantly to the knowledge of the late Permian Glossopteris flora of the Rio do
Rasto and Teresina formations in PR and northern SC states, describing sphenopsids,
pteridophylls, and glossopterids (Rohn and Rösler 1989). She also studied the pre-
Glossopteris flora of the Itararé Group in Salto de Itu (SP) with proto-glossopterids
(Rohn et al. 2000) and mainly sphenopsids from Capivari and Cerquilho munici-
palities (SP) (Rohn and Lages 2000). Recently, she has been dedicated to supervising
studies into petrified logs of Tietea and Psaronius of the Corumbataí Formation and
Calamitaceae, and Marattiales and gymnosperms from the Parnaíba Basin.
Based on a cooperation agreement (2007) between UNESP and the Museum für
Naturkunde Chemnitz, Germany, she is variously collaborating with Ronny Rößler
and Robert Noll in supporting and supervising young upcoming palaeobotanists
during joint fieldwork, studying both petrified fossils and their sedimentary envi-
ronments and taphonomic pathways (Rößler 2006; Dias-Brito et al. 2007; Capretz
and Rohn 2013; Rößler et al. 2014; Tavares et al. 2014; Neregato et al. 2015, 2017;
Iannuzzi et al. 2018). Among the palaeobotanists guided by Rosemarie Rohn in
UNESP Tatiane Tavares Marinho Vieira, now at the UFT, and Rodrigo Neregato,
now in UFRGS, should be mentioned.
Fresia Soledad Ricardi Torres Branco is a professor at the UNICAMP. She is
one of the most active researchers in Brazilian palaeobotany today and got her
master’s and doctorate at USP. Under the guidance of O. Rösler, she iniciated her
studies in palaeobotany studying “Flora das Formações Carache e Palmarito (Neo-
paleozóico) na Região de Carache, Estado de Trujillo, Venezuela”, getting, in 1994,
her master degree. In 1998, she studied the Gondwanan taphoflora of Triunfo
Member (Asselian/Sakmarian, Rio Bonito Formation) in the municipality of
Figueira (PR) for her doctorate and she continues studies on the floras of this
member in the region of Cambuí municipality (PR). She makes palaeophyto-
geographic and lignitaphofloristic studies in the Paraná and Parnaíba basins. She
has also used data from multiple sources for palaeobotanical analysis in the Carbon-
iferous-Permian area of the Paraná Basin. She conducts research into plant taphon-
omy, Phanerozoic floras of South America and new methods of palaeontological
analysis (Ricardi-Branco et al. 2009, 2018). Besides, she has carried out studies on
bryophytes and lycophytes of the Corumbataí and Teresina formations, in the SP
state, developed palaeofloristic studies in the Araripe Basin, studied the Palaeogene
floras of Fonseca and Gandarela basins, observed the characteristics of plant remains
accumulation in the sub-basin of Rio Preto and developed a distribution model in
Itanhaém, SP, while developing multidisciplinary studies in Quaternary palaeoenvir-
onmental reconstruction in Cerrado/Atlantic Forest ecotone in the municipality of
Mogi Guaçu (SP). Ricardi-Branco is responsible for the orientation of the following
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 35

works involving palaeobotany: Jean Mari Fanton (master and PhD), Rafael de
Souza Faria (master and PhD), Marjorie Kauffmann (PhD), Isabel Christiano de
Souza (master and PhD), and Juliana Sampaio da Costa (master).
The USP new “Generation 1990–2020” also included seven students who com-
pleted postgraduate and master’s degrees on palaeobotany, under the guidance of
Mary Bernardes-de-Oliveira, but due to problems beyond their control, only two
continued their academic careers doing their doctorates at USP or another institution,
too. Among these masters are Patrícia Cristalli and Fátima P Leite, in 1997; Ana
Paula Zampirolli, in 2001; Sandra Eiko Mune, in 2005; Paula Andrea Sucerquia
Rendón, in 2007; Fabíola Fabrício Braz, in 2012; and Amanda Hoezel Mendes,
in 2014. Among them, the works of Sandra Eiko Mune stand out by the constancy
and some international reputation.
Sandra E. Mune focused on the Pennsylvanian interglacial taphoflora of the
Volpe Ranch, Monte Mor (SP), Itararé Group, Northeastern Paraná Basin: review
and complementation for her 2005 master’s dissertation at USP. She published
essential papers on palaeofloristic, biostratigraphy, and the taxonomic revision of
the Monte Mor interglacial taphofloras (e.g., Mune and Bernardes-de-Oliveira
2007). She published works on Pennsylvanian lycopsids and conifers of Monte
Mor taphoflora (Mune et al. 2012, 2016). She worked with Pennsylvanian mega-
spores from the northeastern border of the Paraná Basin and its correlation with the
Indian Gondwanan floras and helped in the elaboration of a study comparing
macroflora of the Siderópolis Member of the Rio Bonito Formation with other
early Permian macrofloras of the Paraná Basin and India Cisuralian palaeofloras
(e.g., Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al. 2016b). She also collaborated in research on
Brazilian and Indian Mesophytic palaeofloras and on a book chapter on the origin
and evolution of angiosperms.
Paula Sucerquia – geologist graduated from the Universidad EAFIT, in Colom-
bia (2004), got her master’s degree (2007) and doctorate (2013) from IGc/USP,
under the guidance of Bernardes-de-Oliveira. She has worked with several
researchers on Brazilian mesophytic floras in their global context, on palaeoclimatic
indicators of the Crato palaeoflora (Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al. 2014), on taphon-
omy (Pinheiro et al. 2012), on taxonomy, phytogeography, and phytostratigraphy of
Ruffordia (Mohr et al. 2015) and of Pseudofrenelopsis (Sucerquia et al. 2015).
Today, she works as an associate professor at UFPE researching Cretaceous floras.
Many other students got their master’s degree in Brazilian palaeobotany at the
Guarulhos University (UnG) between 1998 and 2014, also under the guidance of
Bernardes-de-Oliveira.
However, it is worth noting that IGc/USP needs new blood, specifically recruits
with specialization in palaeobotany. Having been the birthplace and meeting center
of Brazilian palaeobotanists for many years, the institution held eight national
meetings in this area (RPPs). Beyond this, IGc/USP is a depository of much
palaeobotanical material consisting of late Palaeozoic plant fossils collections of
the Paraná Basin, Mesozoic plant fossil collection of the Araripe Basin and the
Cenozoic basins of southeastern Brazil: Aiuruoca, Taubaté, São Paulo, and Periph-
eral Depression of São Paulo. Most of this material remains to be studied by
36 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

researchers in the future. Isabel C. Christiano-de-Souza, a newly contracted

professor at IGc/USP, could probably be a new beginning for the future of
palaeobotany at USP.

(b.4) UNESP: The new “Generation 1990–2020”

In UNESP – Rio Claro (SP), a more recent “Generation 1990–2020” is beginning

in palaeobotanical research under the guidance of Rosemarie Rohn. Among them,
we will cite Tatiane Marinho Vieira Tavares and Rodrigo Neregato.
Tatiane Marinho Vieira Tavares is a biologist, graduated from the Centro de
Ensino Superior de Uberaba, and is currently a professor in the UFT, Campus
Araguaína (TO). She obtained her master’s and doctorate degrees from the
UNESP under the orientation of Rosemarie Rohn. Firstly, Tavares studied
Filicophytes from the Corumbataí, and Rio do Rasto formations in the Paraná
Basin, with fronds and stems (Tavares et al. 2011; Tavares and Rohn 2016).
Subsequently, Tavares began to study the Parnaíba Basin ferns (Tavares et al.
2014; Iannuzzi et al. 2018). During a research stay at the Museum für Naturkunde
Chemnitz, Germany, she studied fertile organs of psaroniaceous tree ferns from the
Permian. She acts in palaeontological divulgation and is a member of the Advisory
Board of the Natural Monument of the Fossilized Trees of Tocantins, where she
researched palaeobotany including taxonomy, morphoanatomy, palaeoecology, and
palaeogeography of the Parnaíba and Paraná sedimentary basins, and Heritage
education.
Rodrigo Neregato holds a degree in Ecology from UNESP. At the same institu-
tion, by the Postgraduate Program in Regional Geology, he completed a master’s
degree in palynology. In his PhD (2012), Neregato started to study plant macrofos-
sils, doing his research on sphenopsids of the Natural Monument of the Fossilized
Trees of Tocantins, Parnaíba Basin (Permian, Brazil) (Neregato et al. 2015, 2017).
As a guest researcher of the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz, Germany, he
concerned with petrified calamitaleans of the Permian and closely collaborated
with Ronny Rößler and Robert Noll. He has experience in palaeobotanical studies
with emphasis on anatomy, working mainly in the following subjects: palynology,
palaeobotany, palaeophytogeography, plant palaeoecology of the Carboniferous, and
Permian of the Paraná and Parnaíba basins (Iannuzzi et al. 2018).

(b.5) UNICAMP: The new “Generation 1990–2020”

Among the palaeobotanists, graduated under the guidance of Fresia Ricardi-

Branco, Jean Carlo Mari Fanton, Rafael de Souza Faria, Marjorie Kauffmann,
and Isabel Cortez Christiano-de-Souza should be mentioned.
Jean Carlo Mari Fanton is a biologist from UNICAMP who, between 2004 and
2013, worked with morphology and taxonomy of fossil gymnosperms from the
Paraná Basin (Palaeozoic), and angiosperms from the Araripe Basin (Cretaceous)
and Fonseca and Gandarela basins (Cenozoic). He is the principal author of some
species: Iara iguassu Fanton, Ricardi-Branco, Dilcher et Bernardes-de-Oliveira, and
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 37

Terminalia palaeopubescens Fanton et Ricardi-Branco (Fanton et al. 2006; Fanton

and Ricardi-Branco 2012).
Rafael de Souza Faria began to study plant sciences during his undergraduate
course and to develop research in modern plant taphonomy, fossil charophytes (Faria
et al. 2013), and fossil lycopsids. Subsequently, as a biologist, Faria started to
dedicate himself to fossil plant anatomy, first with lycopsid leaves describing
Lepidophylloides corumbataensis Faria et Ricardi-Branco (Faria and Ricardi-Branco
2010) and, after that, with woods describing a new trunk species Atlanticoxylon
ibiratinum Faria, Ricardi Branco, Rohn, Fernandes et Christiano-de-Souza (Faria et
al. 2018). His main interests in palaeobotany are analyses of leaf phenology and
gymnosperm growth rings. Faria is currently acting as a full-time professor at
PUCCAMP in Campinas municipality (SP).
Marjorie Kauffmann is a forest engineer, graduated from UFSM. She began her
career in palaeobotany with Quaternary forest fires, using charcoal, under the
supervision of André Jasper in UNIVATES (Kauffmann et al. 2016). After that,
she was invited by the Tocantinense Nucleus of Archaeology (UNITINS) to act
along with environmental programs in the Natural Monument of Fossilized Trees,
TO State. She developed her PhD (2015) in UNICAMP under the guidance of Fresia
Ricardi-Branco aiming to map and evaluate the fossiliferous site of Tocantins with
geotourism and geoconservation as a goal. Currently, she coordinates
palaeontological monitoring and rescue programs and is the Director of the Secre-
tariat of the Environment of Lajeado City Hall.
Isabel Cortez Christiano-de-Souza is a geologist, graduated from the
UNICAMP. She began her research with bryophytes and charophytes from the
Teresina Formation (Paraná Basin), where the research group identified two new
species: Capimirinus riopretensis Christiano-de-Souza, Ricardi-Branco et Vargas
2012 and Yguajemanus yucapirus Christiano-de-Souza, Ricardi-Branco et Vargas
2012. In the following years, Christiano-de-Souza dedicated herself to the integra-
tion of palaeobotanical data with Geographic Information Systems aiming to under-
stand the relationship between the Glossopteris flora distribution and its modification
in time and climate (Christiano-de-Souza and Ricardi-Branco 2013, 2015). Cur-
rently, she is acting as a professor at USP and collaborates with Bernardes-de-
Oliveira on research projects in palaeobotany of the Paraná Basin (Palaeozoic) and
of the Araripe Basin (Mesozoic). She is also working on the Brazilian southeastern
Cenozoic flora of the São Paulo basin (Itaquaquecetuba Formation).

(c) Northeastern Brazil – PE and CE States: The new “Generation 1990–2018”

(c.1) UFPE: The new “Generation 1990–2020”

At UFPE, under the leadership of Alcina Barreto and Paula Sucerquia, a new
group of palaeobotanists is being formed having as their focus of study the Mesozoic
flora of the northeastern parts of the country.

(c.2) URCA: The new “Generation 1990–2020”

38 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

In Ceará State, at URCA is Flaviana Jorge de Lima, a biologist with a master’s

degree (2013) and PhD in geosciences (2017) from UFPE. She works in the URCA
and researches on palaeowildfires and on the palaeoflora of the Lower Cretaceous of
Northeast Brazil (Lima et al. 2014). Under her leadership, a new group of
palaeobotanists is being formed having the focus of study the Mesozoic flora of
the Araripe Basin. Another researcher who is appearing in the last years is Maria
Edenilce Peixoto Batista, developing researches on Crato Formation conifers in
partnership with Lutz Kunzmann and other begining researchers (Batista et al. 2018
and 2020).

Conclusion

Future Perspectives

With more than 8,500,000 km2 of territorial area, Brazil is one of the largest
countries in the world. Its crystalline basement is mostly covered, almost
3,000,000 km2, by three large intracratonic basins filled by sediments of ages from
the Silurian to the Cenozoic, besides having a coast nearly 7500 km long with many
Atlantic Cenozoic coastal basins resulting from rifting. Until the Late Devonian or
Mississippian, the intracratonic basins were filled by sediments of marine origin.
From the Permo-Carboniferous onward, the basins were filled by continental sedi-
ments, making them rich in Late Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic continental
taphofloras. The Southeastern Brazilian Cenozoic Continental Rift System consti-
tutes many basins on the Atlantic Plateau bearing Paleogene and Neogene
taphofloras. It is necessary to remember that in contrast to the vast landmass of the
country, there is only a small number of palaeobotanists and, therefore, much
material remains to be studied.
As can be seen from the preceding account, Brazilian palaeobotany was and is,
for the most part, made up of geologists dedicated to this science, or personnel
developed within geological institutions. Consequently, this has resulted in a
palaeobotanical approach for geological purposes: palaeoclimatic, palaeophyto-
geographic, phytostratigraphic, or dating interpretations. Brazilian biologists turning
to palaeobotany, by influence or requirement of the “geological environment,” are
developing palaeobotany with the same vision or geological purpose. So, our
palaeobotany needs more researchers from the biological area or more concerned
with phylogeny, evolution, biochemistry, etc.
Many of the taphofloras have already been studied but require good taxonomic
reviews based on new methods of analyses, such as taphonomic-chemical, interca-
lated volcanic ash radiochronometry, more accurate statistical analysis, and more
frequent and precise observations with SEM, CONFOCAL, TOMOGRAPHY,
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION, etc.
It is also essential to search for the oldest occurrences of current tropical families
of angiosperms, with a more critical view of palaeophytogeographic,
palaeoecological, palaeoclimatic, and phylogenetic interpretations. The reason is
Brazilian Palaeobotany: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives 39

that this country, with such large extensions of Palaeogene and Neogene coverings,
deposited mostly in the humid tropical zone and a so vast diversity of extant plant
species, has a high chance of being the cradle of many modern angiosperm and
monilophyte families.
Overall, Brazilian palaeobotanical studies, although significant, still require more
precise taxonomic identification of its (known and unknown) taphofloristic occur-
rences, and analyses of its plant fossil material under all kinds of preservation:
impressions, petrified wood, compressions or charcoal, and epidermal cuticles of
leaves.
However, phylogenetic and evolutionary interpretations also need to be carried
out, so that the long and complete story of the rich plant diversity of this country,
which so enthralled the first naturalists who arrived here, can be better known,
completed, and explained.
In paraphrase to the geologist Andrade Ramos (1985): the scenario is alive, the
stage is open, the actors are getting better. Brazilian palaeobotany assumes interna-
tional forums. Little by little, the Brazilian palaeobotany gains its majority.

Cross-References

▶ Ancient Tropical Floras in South American Lowland Terrains in the Beginning of

Cenozoic
▶ Angiosperms in the Early Cretaceous of Northern Gondwana: A Track Record
▶ Corystospermales and Other Gymnosperms in the Triassic-Jurassic of Southern
Paraná Basin Areas
▶ Crato Flora, a 110 Million Years Old Window into the Cretaceous World of Brazil
▶ Diversity and Growth Forms of Tree Ferns in the Permian from the Parnaíba Basin
(Central-North Brazil)
▶ Diversity and Stratigraphic Distribution of Sphenophytes in Permian of the Paraná
Basin, Brazil
▶ Earliest Evidence of Land Plants in Brazil
▶ Ferns from Permian of Paraná Basin and Paleoecological Interpretations
▶ Going Towards the Modern Brazilian Vegetation: Based on Macroflora and
Palynoflora Records from the Neogene
▶ History of Palynological Sciences in Brazil
▶ Late Paleozoic Ice Age Flora from the Paraná Basin
▶ Mississippian Plants from the Parnaíba Basin
▶ Paleogene and Neogene Palynological Record in Brazil and Paleoclimatic
Significance
▶ Permian Lycopsids from Brazil
▶ Record of Glossopterid Plants in the Southern Region of Brazil
▶ Wildfires in Late Palaeozoic Strata in Brazil
40 M. E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira et al.

Acknowledgments The authors sincerely appreciate the careful review and valuable contribution
of the editor Ronny Rößler. The authors thank CNPq for the Research Productivity Grant-310823/
2016-1 (MECBO) and 304894/2016-8 (MJG).

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