A new Upper Permian flora from the Middle East with typical Triassic Gondwana elements
Several species of Dicroidium are described from the Um Irna Formation (Upper Permian) of the Dead Sea region, Jordan. Plant remains are preserved as compressions with excellent cuticles. It is the earliest unequivocal record of Dicroidium, a genus that is typical for the Triassic of Gondwana and the northernmost occurrence of this genus that apparently originated in the Late Permian in the palaeotropics. Middle and Late Permian floras from the Arabian Peninsula show a remarkable mixture of elements from different floral provinces, i.e. Euramerica, Cathaysia and Gondwana. The climatic amelioration that has been reported for the Early Triassic of the Gondwana apparently enabled Dicroidium to migrate southward and finally colonize the entire Gondwana region. Dicrioidium is one of the very few megaplant genera that was not affected by the biotic crisis at the Permian-Triassic transition.