Discovery of a Late Permian Angara-Cathaysia mixed flora from Acheng of Heilongjiang, China, with discussions on the closure of the Paleoasian Ocean

This work documents a new flora from the Upper Permian Hongshan Formation of Acheng County, Heilongjiang Province, Northwest China. The flora consists of 20 species: Paracalamites sp., Pecopteris tangwangheensis Huang, Callipteris obese Huang, Callipteris shenshuensis Huang, C. tangwangheensis Huang, C. heilongjiangensis Huang, C. zeilleri Zalessky, C. sp., Comia yichunensis Huang, C. tenueaxis Huang, Iniopteris sibirica Zalessky, Supaia teiliensis Huang, Compsopteris tchirkovae Zalessky, C. cf. adzvensis Zalessky, Nilssonia sp. 1, Nil. sp. 2, Taeniopteris cf. densissima Halle, T cf. nystraemii Halle, T sp. and Noeggerathiopsis derzavinii Neub. It is dominated by Angara species but mixed with some typical Cathaysian elements. The age of the flora is assigned to late of the Late Permian according to the stratigraphic ranges of the known species and the comparisons of it with the similar floras. The new discovery indicates that the final collision between the North China Plate and Siberian Plate occurred in Late Permian along the Xar Moron River-Changchun-Yanji sutured zone, and the Paleoasian Ocean was finally closed at the end of the Permian.