First Late Ordovician conodont fauna in the Betic Cordillera (South Spain): a palaeobiogeographical contribution

Abstract

Terra Nova, 22, 330–340, 2010 Abstract The youngest Ordovician conodont fauna in SW Europe has been found in the Malaguide Complex of the Betic Cordillera, SE Spain. It is also the first Ordovician conodont fauna in the Western Mediterranean Alpine Orogen. The conodont association, attributed to the Hirnantian (upper part of the Amorphognathus ordovicicus Biozone), is characterized by the predominance of Walliserodus amplissimus and Scabbardella altipes and by the absence of Sagittodontina and Istorinus, typical of the Mediterranean Province. This fauna differs markedly from those of the same biozone recorded in the Spanish Variscan Orogen of the Iberian Massif, which are attributed to the Katian. The Malaguide fauna shows, however, striking similarity to faunas of the Carnic Alps and some resemblance to those of the Pyrenees, Northern England and North Wales. These features suggest that Palaeozoic terranes of the Betic Cordillera were located far to the east of their present location and displaced westward during the Alpine Orogeny.

Primeros conodontos del Frasniense en el Complejo Maláguide de Granada (Cordillera Bética)

“…La fauna Frasniense de las zonas MN1 y MN2 hallada en el nivel 17A-67 de la ZCV es, sin embargo, más antigua que las presentes en los restantes afl oramientos del Frasniense conocidos en el Complejo Maláguide y es, por tanto, el Frasniense más antiguo hallado en el mismo. La biofacies de polygnáthidos que contiene sí está presente también en el afl oramiento de la Falcoña Alta, pero en las zonas de transitans y de punctata-hassi (Rodríguez-Cañero & Martín-Algarra, 2014), así como en el Givetiense superior (Zona de disparilis) del área de Almogía (Rodríguez-Cañero, 1993;Rodríguez-Cañero & Martín-Algarra, 2014).…”

“…En afl oramientos maláguides del área de Vélez Rubio, Van de Boogaard (1965) identifi có un horizonte del Frasniense superior-Fameniense inferior. Otros niveles del Frasniense han sido datados posteriormente, también mediante conodontos, en afl oramientos del Complejo Maláguide en la provincia de Málaga: i) de nuevo en la zona de Almogía (Rodríguez-Cañero, 1993;Rodríguez-Cañero et al, 2010); ii) en clastos incluidos en el conglomerado de Retamares del Carbonífero inferior en Fuengirola (Herbig, 1984;Rodríguez-Cañero, 1993); iii) en el arroyo de la Cruz (Marbella), donde Herbig (1985) reconoció la existencia de un Frasniense superior; y iv) en clastos incluidos en un conglomerado del Devónico Superior, relacionado con los eventos del límite Frasniense-Fameniense, en el Cortijo de la Falcoña (Rodríguez-Cañero & Martín-Algarra, 2014).…”

U–Pb detrital zircon ages from the Paleozoic Marbella Conglomerate of the Malaguide Complex (Betic Cordilleras, Spain). Implications on Paleotethyan evolution

“…Regarding the paleogeography of the Alboran domain during the Paleozoic, the differing interpretations concern both its location relative to Proto-Iberia and its integration within the diverse Gondwana-derived microcontinents. On the first issue, some authors have proposed that during the Ordovician it should be located far to the east of its present location, in close relationship to the Alps, in an intermediate palaeogeographic position towards the Carnics Alps (see figure 7 of Rodríguez-Cañero et al, 2010) or the Adria Terrane (see figure 4 of . Instead, other authors (Stampfli et al, 2013) propose a more westerly position, between the Ossa-Morena and Moroccan Meseta terranes (see figure 3 of Stampfli et al, 2013).…”