Lycopsids from the Upper Devonian of northern Chile with remarks on the geographical distribution of the morphogenus Haplostigma Seward

We here present the first systematic description of Devonian plant fossils from Chile. The material was collected from the Upper Devonian El Toco Formation in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile. Plant fossils occur as impressions of lycopsid axes in marine turbiditic greywacke beds and comprise Haplostigma furquei (Frenguelli) Guti,rrez, Malanzania cf. nana Archangelsky, Azcuy and Wagner, and further unidentifiable remains. The biostratigraphic ranges of these taxa agree well with previous age assessments for this sequence, based on conodonts and radiometric data. Haplostigma was widely distributed in the middle-to-high latitude, cool-temperate biome of southern Gondwana, providing further evidence that Middle to Late Devonian extra-tropical floras of Gondwana were dominated by low-diversity associations of herbaceous lycopsids.