Abstract
The Aptian-Albian paleoichthyofauna in Brazil and Africa is quite diverse, yet their geographic patterns still require accounts. This work consists of a panbiogeographical analysis of paleoichthyofauna from Aptian-Albian through track analysis. Geographic coordinates were obtained and converted into paleocoordinates. Individual Tracks (ITs) and Generalized Tracks (GTs) were built with the aid of ArcView GIS v3.2 program using Trazos2004 extension. As a result, four GTs and tree Biogeographic Nodes (A, B and C) had been identified. GTs 1 and 2 shows two different faunas. GT3 indicates similarity between Brazil and Africa paleoichthyofauna suggesting the break-up of Gondwana as the event that separated it. GT4 represents a probable local seaway produced by transgressions. In the Node A a unique fauna was found indicating the presence of a third biota with its own characteristics. Node B is associated with the break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana. Node C was related to fauna exchange promoted by marine ingression and epicontinental seas that occurred during Aptian-Albian. We concluded that there is a relationship between the distributional patterns of biota and events such as the break-up of Gondwana, the formation of Atlantic Ocean and eustatic movements that affected South America and Africa.
Highlights
IntroductionThe paleoichthyofauna of the Cretaceous, mainly restricted to the Aptian-Albian, is diversified and known since 19th century
The large number of taxa (112) represented by 219 occurrences permits an overview of the paleoichthyofauna from Brazil and Africa during the Aptian-Albian
The 38 individual tracks obtained confirmed the great biodiversity in the range studied, as well as allowing the identification of distributional patterns
Summary
The paleoichthyofauna of the Cretaceous, mainly restricted to the Aptian-Albian, is diversified and known since 19th century The Aptian-Albian assemblages possess many fossil representatives in Brazilian marginal and interior basins and these have been used to illustrate the relationships between South America and Africa (Maisey 1993, 2000). Brazilian fossil records of this age range come from several basins, such as Earth Sciences. Parnaíba, Pernambuco-Paraíba, Potiguar, Sanfranciscana, São Luís, Sergipe-Alagoas and Tucano, and include many taxa (e.g., †Lepidotes, †Vinctifer comptoni, †Dastilbe crandalli, †Rhacolepis buccalis). The Araripe Basin is an interior basin located in Northeast Brazil. Its Aptian-Albian sequence is represented by the Crato and Santana formations, respectively, and they indicate the post-rift stage. The paleoenvironments found in these lithostratigraphic units are lacustrine, coastal and platform, being composed of shales, limestones and sandstones (Assine 2007)
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