The identity and significance of the high-latitude Early Ordovician Mediterranean brachiopod Province

Abstract

During the Early Ordovician Epoch, the Mediterranean brachiopod Province was extensive in the higher-latitude sectors of the globe in the Southern Hemisphere. The latter was much occupied by the massive continent of Gondwana, which stretched from north of the Equator S-wards to cover the South Pole. The Mediterranean Province can be separated into two groups: Group 1, the higher-latitude fauna dominated by large linguliform brachiopods; and Group 2, which is more diverse, particularly in orthides. The large linguliform brachiopod faunas are particularly well known in southern Europe (France, Spain and Bohemia) and North Africa, and the second group in Avalonia, Chile and Argentina. The province is different from, but merges with, more diverse contemporary faunas in the lower latitudes of Gondwana to its north, although the latter contrast with other lower-latitude faunal provinces in South China, Laurentia, Siberia and elsewhere. Since the Rheic Ocean between Avalonia and Gondwana was relatively narrow during the Early Ordovician Epoch, the Avalonian brachiopods were integral parts of the Mediterranean Province, but only until end of the Dapingian Age. This paper focuses on the earlier phases of the Mediterranean Province, although the province continued until near the end of the Ordovician Period. Intermediate-latitude Baltica and some other faunas are included in new principal components and other analyses in order to compare them with the Mediterranean Province faunas. Radiation was very significant for many brachiopod taxa during the period, with first appearances of the Plectambonitoidea (Taffiidae), several orthide families (Euorthisinidae, Tarfayidae and Anamalorthidae) and the earliest endopunctate orthide, the dalmanelloid Lipanorthis.

Lower Tremadocian (Ordovician) lingulate brachiopods from the Central Andean Basin (NW Argentina) and their biogeographical links

“…It is noteworthy that six out of the seven Tremadocian genera occurring in the CAB (~ 86%) are shared with Bohemia. Especially relevant is the presence of the obolids Leptembolon and Libecoviella, which constitute, together with some other taxa, the Thysanotos-Leptembolon Association recorded , 2007, Popov et al 2013 andPopov 2021. Complementary bibliographic sources: Bohemia (Havlíček 1982(Havlíček , 1989Mergl 1995Mergl , 2002Mergl , 2018; Laurentia (Popov et al 2002, Holmer et al 2005, Freeman et al 2018; Avalonia (Sutton et al 1999(Sutton et al , 2000Cocks & Popov 2019); Baltica (Popov & Holmer 1994, 1995; Alborz (Iran: Popov et al 2008, Ghobadi Pour et al 2011; NW Argentina (Benedetto & Muñoz 2015; South Urals (Popov & Holmer 1994, 1995; Australia (Percival & Engelbretsen 2007); Malyi Karatau (Kyrgyzstan: Popov & Holmer 1994, 1995Holmer et al 2001); S Kendyktas Range (Kazakhstan: Popov & Holmer, 1994)…”

Brachiopod Fauna from the Deep Mediterranean Sea: Distribution Patterns and Ecological Preferences

“…While Mediterranean fossil brachiopods have been investigated extensively ( [28][29][30], among the most recent works), living brachiopods have received far less attention, with only a few studies focused exclusively on them [9,17,20,22]. Furthermore, the most common techniques used to study the deep brachiopod fauna are dredges and grabs, together with the analysis of trawling discard, methods mainly targeting soft bottoms and especially large accumulations of dead individuals (as for G. vitreus) [26].…”