Spatiotemporal extension of the Euramerican Psaronius component community to the Late Permian of Cathaysia: In situ coprolites in a P. <I>housuoensis</I> stem from Yunnan Province, southwest China

Abstract

We report well- preserved coprolites in the ground tissue of the permineralized stem of Psaronius housuoensis D&#39;Rozario et al., from Upper Permian deposits of Yunnan Province, southwest China. The distinctive coprolites are circular to oval in shape, ranging on average from 944 x 1190 [mu]m to 1065 x 1120 [mu]m, and contain histologically identifiable tracheids, parenchyma, gum sac cells, spores and fungal remains. Several lines of evidence indicate that this association was detritivorous, represented a pith boring, and was made by a diplopod or more likely an insect. This discovery extends the temporal duration of the food web of Psaronius plant-arthropod associations from the late Middle Pennsylvanian to now the Late Permian, and extends the biogeographic range from the equatorial wetlands of the Illinois, Northern Appalachian, and German Erzgebirge Basins of Euramerica to now the South China Block of Cathaysia. The Psaronius-arthropod-fungi component community is spatiotemporally the most persistent of documented Paleozoic associations in the fossil record.