REVIEW ARTICLE Lycopsids from the Upper Devonian of northern Chile with remarks on the geographical distribution of the morphogenus Haplostigma Seward Philippe Moisan • Hans Niemeyer • Hans Kerp Received: 25 February 2010 / Accepted: 20 December 2010 / Published online: 13 January 2011 Ó Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract We here present the first systematic description of Devonian plant fossils from Chile. The material was collected from the Upper Devonian El Toco Formation in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile. Plant fossils occur as impressions of lycopsid axes in marine turbiditic grey- wacke beds and comprise Haplostigma furquei (Frenguelli) Gutie ´rrez, Malanzania cf. nana Archangelsky, Azcuy and Wagner, and further unidentifiable remains. The biostrati- graphic ranges of these taxa agree well with previous age assessments for this sequence, based on conodonts and radiometric data. Haplostigma was widely distributed in the middle-to-high latitude, cool-temperate biome of southern Gondwana, providing further evidence that Middle to Late Devonian extra-tropical floras of Gondwana were dominated by low-diversity associations of herbaceous lycopsids. Keywords El Toco Formation Á Chile Á Upper Devonian Á Lycopsids Á Haplostigma Á Malanzania Kurzfassung Erstmals werden hier Pflanzenfossilien aus dem Pala ¨ozoikum Chiles beschrieben. Es handelt sich um Abdruckreste verschiedenartiger krautfo ¨rmiger Lycopsiden, die in den marinen Turbiditablagerungen der oberdevonischen El Toco Formation in der nordchileni- schen Ku ¨stenkordillere gesammelt wurden. Die Lycopsi- denachsen werden zu Haplostigma furquei (Frenguelli) Gutie ´rrez und Malanzania cf. nana Archangelsky, Azcuy and Wagner gestellt. Es treten allerdings noch weitere, bisher unbestimmte Lycopsidenreste auf. Die Funde besta ¨- tigen bisherige Altersannahmen fu ¨r die El Toco Formation, die sich auf Conodontenproben aus u ¨berlagernden Schichten sowie auf radiometrische Datierungen granitischer Intrusiva stu ¨tzen. Ein Vergleich mit gleichaltrigen Pflanzenverge- sellschaftungen aus Gondwana verdeutlicht, dass die Vegetation in ho ¨heren Breitengraden der Su ¨dhemisphere wa ¨hrend des Devons vorwiegend von gering-diversen Assoziationen krautfo ¨rmiger Lycopsiden dominiert war. Schlu ¨ sselwo ¨rter El Toco Formation Á Chile Á Oberdevon Á Lycopsiden Á Haplostigma Á Malanzania Introduction The study of Devonian plants in South America has shown significant advances since the last decade (e.g. Berry et al. 2000; Cingolani et al. 2002; Edwards et al. 2001a, b; Gerrienne et al. 2001; Di Pasquo et al. 2009). However, occurrences of Devonian plants in Chile have not yet been documented in detail. The El Toco Formation in the north Chilean Coastal Cordillera yielded some of the very few occurrences of Devonian fossil plants in Chile. The first reliable record of fossil plants from this formation was mentioned in a brief explanatory note of a geological map by Covacevich and Troncoso (in Maksaev and Marinovic 1980). They reported the occurrence of the lycopsid Haplostigma furquei. P. Moisan (&) Á H. Kerp Forschungsstelle fu ¨r Pala ¨obotanik am Institut fu ¨r Geologie und Pala ¨ontologie, Westfa ¨lische Wilhelms-Universita ¨t Mu ¨nster, Hindenburgplatz 57, 48143 Mu ¨nster, Germany e-mail: f_mois01@uni-muenster.de H. Kerp e-mail: kerp@uni-muenster.de H. Niemeyer Departamento de Ciencias Geolo ´gicas, Universidad Cato ´lica del Norte, Av. Angamos 0610, Antofagasta, Chile e-mail: hansn@ucn.cl 123 Pala ¨ontol Z (2011) 85:231–240 DOI 10.1007/s12542-010-0093-6