First record of spinicaudatan fauna (Crustacea-Diplostraca) from the Las Hoyas Early Cretaceous (Cuenca, Spain)

BUSCALIONI, A.D. ; GALLEGO, O.F.; ZACARÍAS, I.A.; MONFERRAN, M.D.

Ribeirão Preto

Congreso; XXV Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia; 2017

Sociedade Brasileira de Paleontologia

Las Hoyas is oneof best known Konservat Lagerstätte worldwide, with a diverse fossil recordranging from bacteria to dinosaurs. The biodiversity of this site recentlyimproved with the re-discovery at the Castilla-La Mancha Natural SciencesMuseum (Cuenca, Spain) of several individuals of three spinicaudatan speciesfound at the Las Hoyas carbonatic limestones in different stratigraphic levels.The spinicaudatans recorded correspond to members of the superfamiliesAfrograptioidea  and Eosestherioidea, andto the Family Anthronestheriidae. The most relevant specimen belongs toAfrograptidae probably related to the genus Graptoestheriella.This family has a short stratigraphic span, ranging from the Late Jurassic tothe Early Cretaceous of Africa, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil, and recentlyits distribution has extended to the Early Cretaceous of England and now Spain.This group encourages the revision of the species dispersions along theGondwana break up and Laurasia. Also, the species would have a greatbiostratigraphic impact as a fossil guide. The other taxa do not have a minorpalaeontological impact because of they are important components of theJurassic-Cretaceous biota from China and Asia. Other consequences of theseinteresting fauna, not explored yet, are their palaeoenvironmental andpalaeocological significance according the vertical distribution of these threeforms in the locality.