Las formaciones del Ordovícico Medio del Anti-Atlas (sur de Marruecos) han librado un variado registro de trilobites, moluscos, equinodermos, braquiópodos, graptolitos, microfósiles e icnofósiles en alrededor de 180 localidades. Gran parte de ellas fueron descubiertas durante la realización de la cartografía geológica a escala 1:200.000 y la mayoría del material paleontológico permanece inédito. En este trabajo se revisa el marco geológico de todas las localidades fosilíferas conocidas (tanto las publicadas como las inéditas), poniéndose en evidencia numerosas discrepancias litoestratigráficas en relación con estudios precedentes. Además de la reevaluación estratigráfica, se revisa el contenido paleontológico de cada formación y localidad, actualizando la taxonomía de muchas de las formas identificadas. Desde el punto de vista cronoestratigráfico, el conjunto de la Formación Tachilla y las cinco formaciones del Grupo Primer Bani se adscriben por vez primera a la escala regional mediterránea. Los límites Oretaniense-Dobrotiviense y Dobrotiviense-Berouniense se sitúan, respectivamente, en la Formación de Bou-Zeroual y en el techo de la Formación Izegguirene. El tránsito Oretaniense inferior-superior se emplaza provisionalmente en el tercio superior de la Formación Tachilla, y el límite Dobrotiviense inferior-superior hacia la base o en la parte inferior de la Formación Ouine-Inirne. También se aporta la correlación general de las unidades del Ordovício Medio antiatlásico con respecto a la escala estándar o global del sistema Ordovícico. La base de la Serie Ordovícico Superior se sitúa probablemente en la parte inferior de la región como un centro importante de diversificación para numerosas faunas mediterráneas, las cuales experimentan una amplia dispersión posterior en las plataformas marinas del norte de Gondwana.
The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) represents a diversification at lower taxonomic levels of most body plans that had appeared during the Cambrian explosion. Among trilobites, several novelties related to enrolment evolved during the GOBE. A kinematic analysis by means of 3D modelling of some new enrolment types shows no relationship with those of the Cambrian trilobites. While some structures emerged for the first time in Ordovician trilobites (e.g. articulations and panderian organs), other structures (e.g. anterior and posterior arch in head and tail) appear earlier in Cambrian trilobites. Our results suggest that the evolution of some groups was clearly rooted in the Cambrian explosion while others clearly appeared during the GOBE.
The Bohemo‐Iberian regional scale for South Gondwana, involving the ‘Mediterranean Province’, comprises five regional stages (Arenigian, Oretanian, Dobrotivian, Berounian and Kralodvorian) plus the global Tremadocian and Hirnantian. The predominance of shallow‐water taxa in those high‐latitude faunas imposes serious difficulties for correlating the regional succession with the formal global chronostratigraphy because of the almost total absence of the key graptolites and conodonts defining the base of the standard series, stages and stage slices. Instead, the abundant benthic faunas (trilobites, brachiopods, molluscs, echinoderms) of South Gondwanan origin largely dominated in the area from the middle Darriwilian to the late Katian. The poleward faunal migration of originally Avalonian, Baltic, Laurentian and even Asiatic taxa during the Boda Event of global warming progressively ends with the endemicity in the region, where the ensuing benthic assemblages were severely affected by the Hirnantian glaciation. The regional scale significantly improves the precision of correlations between Ordovician strata from SW and central Europe, North Africa and a large part of the Middle East. An updated record of palaeontological data from areas where Mediterranean faunas remain practically unknown, or are still poorly investigated, is also included. Palaeobiogeographical relationships based on the distribution of faunas across South Gondwana are suggested as an improvement for positioning many territories in modern palaeogeographical reconstructions and offer a constructive approach to problems related to the pre‐Variscan and pre‐Alpine orogenic puzzles.
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