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Sea-level changes and ammonite faunal turnover during the Lias/Dogger transition in the western Tethys

¹ Depto. Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071-Granada, Spain.
² Depto. Geología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad de Cádiz, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain.
³ Intitut de Géologie et Paléontologie, Université de Lausanne, BFSH-2, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the possible connections between ammonite faunal turnover and the eustatic events recorded in Tethyan sequences during the middle Toarcian/early Bajocian time interval. For this we have analysed the biostratigraphic ranges, at the subzone level, of approximately 600 ammonite species belonging to 160 genera from several selected sections of the western Tethys (Mediterranean and Submediterranean provinces). The analysis of taxon ranges enabled us to plot curves for ammonite faunal turnovers, inter-subzonal distance, and diversity. Comparing the mentioned curves with Tethyan sequences [Hardenbol et al., 1998], we find that sea-level changes correlate well with origination and extinction events and faunal diversity. Most of the faunal turnovers correlate with stratigraphic events. Extinction events with their corresponding decrease in diversity correlate with regressive intervals and with major or minor sequence boundaries. Origination events and their corresponding increase in diversity were clearly connected with transgressions in Tethyan sequences. In several cases, the major sequence boundary and the subsequent transgressive phase correlate with major ammonite faunal turnover, whereas minor or medium sequence boundaries generally gave rise to minor or medium turnovers.

Key Words: Lias/Dogger transition • Ammonites • Faunal turnover • Eustatic changes • Mediterranean province • Submediterranean province