Archaeoradiolites emend. (Rudist bivalve- Radiolitidae) and its species from the upper Aptian of Romania. Palaeoecology and palaeobiogeographic implications

Abstract

The genus Archaeoradiolites, discovered for the first time in two regions of Romania, the Southern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mounts, is represented by A. hispanicus and A. primitivus, two chronospecies first described from Southern Spain. The genus Archaeoradiolites whose definition tends to focus on the outer shell microstructure with radially arranged branching walls, is emended: it has true plate The Romanian radiolitid-bearing beds are assigned to the upper Aptian. The association of radiolitids with a coral community assumed to be mesophotic, i.e. ciralittoral is unusual and transient infralittoral conditions in an overall circalittoral regime are assumed Archaeoradiolites appears mainly as a North Tethyan Mediterranean taxon. Its spatial extent, from the Pontides, southern France and southern Spain tend to weaken or erase, in the late Aptian, the antecedent bipartite palaeobiogeographic division of Europe, an event correlated with the mid-Aptian crisis.