THE EURYDESMA-LYONIA FAUNA (EARLY PERMIAN) FROM THE ITARARÉ GROUP, PARANÁ BASIN (BRAZIL): A PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHIC E-W TRANSGONDWANAN MARINE CONNECTION

TABOADA, ARTURO CÉSAR; NEVES JACQUELINE; WEINSCHÜTZ LUIS; SIMOES MARCELLO

Crato

Congreso; XXIV Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia; 2015

In this contribution, by the fisrt time, the biocorrelation of the marine invertebrate fauna recorded in the post-glacial succession of the uppermost portion of the Late Paleozoic (Westphalian to early Permian) Itararé Group (Taciba Formation), Paraná Basin, Brazil, is firmely constrained with others well dated Gondwanan assemblages. Correlation and age of the rare, but fossil-rich, marine assemblages of the Itararé succession, is one of the main controversial themes of the Brazilian Gondwana geology. This and other related issues has been hotly debated since the mid-50?s, when Frederico Waldemar Lange (1911-1988) published the classical volume named ?Paleontologia do Paraná?, during the centenary of the homonymous State (1954). The propoused biocorrelations are mainly based on the rhynchonelliform brachiopod faunas and associated bivalve mollusks of the Taciba Formation in the uppermost portion of the Itararé Group. In total 118 brachiopod specimens where investigated and, at least, seven species identified and illustrated, as follow: Lyonia sp. nov. (Butiá assemblage), Langella imbituvensis?, ?Streptorhynchus sp., ?Cyrtella sp., Tomiopsis sp. cf. T. harringtoni (Harrington), Quinquenella rionegrensis (Oliveira) (= Chonetes rionegrensis) and Crurithyris roxoi Oliveira (Teixeira Soares assemblages). The presence of Tomiopsis sp. cf. T. harringtoni and the bivalve Atomodesma (Aphanaia) orbirugata (Harrington), in the Teixeira Soares beds,and the associated bivalves Myonia argentinensis (Harrington) and Heteropecten paranaensis Neves et al, both recorded in deposits in Teixeira Soares and Mafra (Butiá), suggest biocorrelation with the Eurydesma fauna from the Bonete Formation, Sauce Grande-Colorado Basin, Argentina. Furthermore, the presence of the brachiopod genus Lyonia Archbold and the bivalve species Praeundulomya cf. subelongata Dickins in the Taciba Formation, also suggest affinities with deposits of the Lyons Group, Carnarvon Basin and Fossil Cliff Member, Perth Basin (Western Australia). In conclusions, our data point out that the studied brachiopod faunas are mainly Asselian-earlySakmarian in age. Even more important these also indicate a presence of an E-W transgondwanan marine connection (seaway) between the Paraná Basin (Itararé Group, Brazil), the Sauce Grande-Colorado (Bonete Formation, Argentina), Aranos Basin (Hardap shale of the Dwyka Group, Namibia, southwest Africa) and Carnavon and Perth (Western Australia) basins, with obvious paleobiogeographic implications.