The oldest post-Paleozoic (Ladinian, Triassic) brachiopods from the Betic Range, SE Spain

Abstract

Triassic brachiopods from the Betic Range were unknown hitherto. Herein we describe the first brachiopod occurrences in the early Ladinian of this domain referable to a new genus and species Misunithyris goyi derived from three localities of the south-Iberian Triassic outcrops. The analysis of internal and external characters of this brachiopod allowed to characterize systematically and biogeographically this fauna in a chronostratigraphic interval when the paucity of brachiopod records is attributable to the entire peri-Iberian epicontinental platform system established in the westernmost Tethyan margin. The new record is endemic to the Betic Range and represents a new faunal constituent of the multicostate zeillerids stock. This fauna inhabited the epicontinental seas of the Sephardic bioprovince since a closer affinity with the low-latitude Tethyan assemblages is revealed. The possible linkage of the Triassic stock with the Early–Middle Jurassic multicostate zeillerid representatives suggests feasible phylogenetic relationships between both groups.