Constraining the Permian/Triassic transition in continental environments: Stratigraphic and paleontological record from the Catalan Pyrenees (NE Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

The continental Permian–Triassic transition in southern Europe presents little paleontological evidence of the Permian mass extinction and the subsequent faunal recovery during the early stages of the Triassic. New stratigraphic, sedimentological and paleontological analyses from Middle–Upper Permian to Lower–Middle Triassic deposits of the Catalan Pyrenees (NE Iberian Peninsula) allow to better constrain the Permian–Triassic succession in the Western Tethys basins, and provide new (bio-) chronologic data. For the first time, a large vertebra attributed to a caseid synapsid from the ?Middle Permian is reported from the Iberian Peninsula—one of the few reported from western Europe. Osteological and ichnological records from the Triassic Buntsandstein facies reveal a great tetrapod ichnodiversity, dominated by small to medium archosauromorphs and lepidosauromorphs (Rhynchosauroides cf. schochardti, R. isp. 1 and 2, Prorotodactylus–Rotodactylus), an undetermined Morphotype A and to a lesser degree large archosaurians (chirotheriids), overall suggesting a late Early Triassic–early Middle Triassic age. This is in agreement with recent palynological analyses in the Buntsandstein basal beds that identify different lycopod spores and other bisaccate and taeniate pollen types of late Olenekian age (Early Triassic). The Permian caseid vertebra was found in a playa-lake setting with a low influence of fluvial water channels and related to the distal parts of alluvial fans. In contrast, the Triassic Buntsandstein facies correspond to complex alluvial fan systems, dominated by high-energy channels and crevasse splay deposits, hence a faunal and environmental turnover is observed. The Pyrenean biostratigraphical data show similarities with those of the nearby Western Tethys basins, and can be tentatively correlated with North African and European basins. The Triassic Pyrenean fossil remains might rank among the oldest continental records of the Western Tethys, providing new keys to decipher the Triassic faunal biogeography and recovery.