Floras from red beds of the Permian Basin of Lodève (southern France)
Résumé
The fossil plants from the red beds of the Lodève Basin are generally rare and of poor preservation in comparison to the well known “grey Autunian” flora. According to previous work by Doubinger and following a reinvestigation of available collections with new data, we propose lists of the floras from the red beds of the “transition zone”, from the Rabejac Formation and, for the first time, from the Salagou Formation. Callipteris cf. uralensis and Supaia are two significant taxa; the first appears with the red beds whilst Supaia is only known from the Rabejac Formation. This genus, formerly considered to be endemic of Arizona, has been reported in Russia, Spain and China, in addition to the Lodève basin where its occurrence may be suggestive of a Late Artinskian to Kungurian age for this basal section of the former “Saxonian group”. Of interest also, some conifers from Rabejac and the overlying Salagou Formations show either succulent leaves and /or cones similar to those of some Triassic conifers that certainly represent an important change in the flora in response to increasing dryness. Due to unfavourable conditions of fossilisation and considering the importance of animal life in the playas ecosystems of the Salagou Formation, the rare plants are interpreted as the impoverished reflect of an originally much more diverse vegetation perhaps dominated by arborescent conifers