Palinologia do neógeno da Bacia do Alto Solimões: aspectos sistemáticos, bioestratigráficos e paleoecológicos

Abstract

The Amazon region harbors high biologic diversity distributed throughout a huge and heterogeneous area. Many hypotheses try to explain this high diversity present in Amazonia, as well as in other tropical rainforests. However, few studies about the geological and paleontological histories have been developed in order to find out paleoecological patterns of the Amazonian history. In reason of the scarcity of paleontological studies, some contradictory hypotheses that try to explain the evolution of the Amazonian environment, as well as some biogeographical aspects, are available in the literature. The present study was conducted in order to find out some general aspects of the ecology and stratigraphy of the Amazonia using Palynology as the main tool. However, it was observed that the palynological nomenclature used presently needed a review. Forty-one samples from 2 cores located in the Upper Solimões Basin were analyzed. One hundred twelve species were systematically described, with 51 being new species, and 7 new combinations were proposed. Many genera were recorded for the first time in Amazonia. This kind of information is useful to calibrate molecular clocks. New stratigraphic zones were proposed for the Pliocene using the Unitary Association method, and the environment was interpreted as a highly dynamic freshwater system, with no evidence of coastal or marine influence. Many plant genera that exist today were present since the Miocene/Pliocene, suggesting that the high modern biodiversity could be the result of a long history of environmental stability.