Controls on migration of conodont fauna in peripheral oceanic areas. An example from the Middle Triassic of the Northern Peri-Tethys

Abstract

Middle Triassic conodont assemblages in the semi-closed Peri-Tethyan Germanic Basin comprise endemic forms, which evolved within the basin, and immigrants from the Tethys Ocean. Migration from the Tethys proceeded diachronously through three tectonically predisposed pathways (gates) and was controlled by relative sealevel changes recorded in depositional sequences of the Muschelkalk. In the Early and Middle Anisian predominant were the forms that originated in the Eastern Tethys and in southern basins of the Western Tethys. They migrated through the East Carpathian Gate and Silesian-Moravian Gate. In the late Anisian and early Ladinian forms from the Western Tethyan basins prevailed; their migration pathway led through the Western and East Carpathian Gates. The latter gate was active only at the turn of Illyrian and Fassanian. Episodes of migration of the Tethyan forms and dispersal of conodont fauna throughout the German Basin coincide with the transgressive or highstand phases of a particular depositional sequence (as defined by Szulc, 1999). The most significant proportion of the Tethyan species appears to correlate with the maximum flooding surface of the A 3 sequence, (Lower Muschelkalk) later they decrease in diversity. In the Upper Muschelkalk the most numerous Tethyan species correspond to the transgressive phase of the L 1 sequence. Above the mfs of the L 1 sequence only the Germanic forms remain.