Revisión bioestratigráfica de las pizarras del Ordovícico Medio en el noroeste de España (zonas Cantábrica, Asturoccidental-leonesa y Centroibérica septentrional)

Authors

  • J.C. GUTIÉRREZ-MARCO
  • C. ARAMBURU
  • M. ARBIZU
  • E. BERNÁRDEZ
  • M.P. HACAR RODRÍGUEZ
  • I. MÉNDEZ-BEDIA
  • R. MONTESINOS LÓPEZ
  • I. RÁBANO
  • I. TRUYOLS
  • E. VILLAS

Abstract

A complete review of more than one hundred Middle Ordovician fossil localities, distributed within the north western part of the Hesperian Massif, shows that the sedimentation of the dark shales (Luarca Fo rmation and equivalents) that overlie Arenig quartzites with Cruziana (the 'Armorican Quartzite' facies) was not as uniform as it has been supposed for the whole NW Spain. These shales were mainly deposited during the Oretanian in the West Asturian-Leonese Zone and in nort h e rn Central-Iberian Zone (Domain of the Ollo de Sapo Antiform). In these zones, the top of the unit is close to the Oretanian/Dobrotivian boundary, without any fossils with proved Dobrotivian age. In the Cantabrian Zone, clay sedimentation started in the latest Oretanian and continued during the Dobrotivian. Several local or regional stratigraphic gaps are proposed and characterized for the whole study area. In addition, the most recent paleog e ographical reconstructions proposed are discussed, in accordance with new paleoecological and paleobiog e ographical data. These data indicate that sedimentation took place in open shelf areas, relative ly deeper than in the southern Central Iberian shelf, and with trough areas where some mesopelagic elements are recorded. We identified a total of 97 different fossil taxa (67 from Oretanian rocks and 45 from Dobrotivian rocks), remarkable among which are the first known appearance of certain trilobites and ostracodes, the latest record of other taxa, and also the presence of some taxa in common with Avalonia and Baltica, that were previously unknown from any area of SW Europe.

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