Recurrent palaeo-wildfires in a Cisuralian coal seam: A palaeobotanical view on high-inertinite coals from the Lower Permian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil.

Distribution and abundance of charcoal in coal seams (in form of pyrogenic macerals of the inertinites group) have been considered as a reliable tool to interpret the local and regional palaeo-wildfire regimes in peat-forming depositional environments. Although the occurrence of inertinites is globally well documented for the Late Palaeozoic, the description of palaeobotanical evidence concerning the source plants of such charcoal is so far largely missing. In the present study, we provide the first detailed analysis of macro-charcoal preserved in the Barro Branco coal seam, Rio Bonito Formation, Cisuralian of the Paraná Basin, Santa Catarina State, Brazil.