title: New Permian fauna from tropical Gondwana.
abstract: Terrestrial vertebrates are first known to colonize high-latitude regions during the middle Permian (Guadalupian) about 270 million years ago, following the Pennsylvanian Gondwanan continental glaciation. However, despite over 150 years of study in these areas, the biogeographic origins of these rich communities of land-dwelling vertebrates remain obscure. Here we report on a new early Permian continental tetrapod fauna from South America in tropical Western Gondwana that sheds new light on patterns of tetrapod distribution. Northeastern Brazil hosted an extensive lacustrine system inhabited by a unique community of temnospondyl amphibians and reptiles that considerably expand the known temporal and geographic ranges of key subgroups. Our findings demonstrate that tetrapod groups common in later Permian and Triassic temperate communities were already present in tropical Gondwana by the early Permian (Cisuralian). This new fauna constitutes a new biogeographic province with North American affinities and clearly demonstrates that tetrapod dispersal into Gondwana was already underway at the beginning of the Permian.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Piauí, 64049-550 Teresina, Brazil.|Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50740-533 Recife, Brazil.
authors.forename: Juan C
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6159-1981
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Cisneros
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Cs. Geologicas, FCEN, Universidad de Buenos Aires, IDEAN-CONICET, C1428EHA Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marsicano
authors.affiliation: Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Angielczyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Karoo PalaeontologyIziko, South African Museum, PO Box 61, Cape Town 8000, South Africa.|Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Roger M H
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstr. 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany.|Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstr. 110, D-10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fröbisch
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstr. 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Kammerer
authors.affiliation: Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Saint Xavier University, 3700 West 103rd Street, Chicago, Illinois 60655, USA.
authors.forename: Rudyard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Sadleir
mesh_terms: D000663:Amphibians; D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D010802:Phylogeny; D013020:South America