Early Palaeozoic brachiopods and associated shelly faunas from western Gondwana: their bearing on the geodynamic history of the pre-Andean margin

Abstract

Abstract The strong provincialism exhibited by early Ordovician to Devonian brachiopod faunas provides an independent tool for testing palaeogeographical hypotheses. Patterns of biogeographical affinities of early Palaeozoic brachiopods from the Argentine Precordillera, the Sierra de Famatina and the Central Andean basin (NW Argentina, Bolivia, southern Peru) suggest that the pre-Andean margin was linked to northern Iapetus Ocean history. The low-grade Vendian-Early Cambrian Puncoviscana Formation and the broadly coeval rocks from the Carolina and Gander terranes may represent sedimentation in a narrow basin developed between Laurentia and Gondwana during rifting. Palaeontological evidence suggests that the Precordillera developed on the passive margin of Laurentia but moved away as an independent plate during the Ordovician; the hypothesis of the Precordillera as a Laurentian plateau does not explain faunal differences between their Late Arenig-Llanvirn brachiopods. Ordovician subduction beneath Gondwana resulted in formation of the Famatina-Puna-Avalonia volcanic-arc system. Affinities between Celtic brachiopods of this age in volcaniclastic rocks from South America (Famatina) and eastern North America (Maine, Gander, Central Newfoundland) suggest some geographical continuity between them, consistent with palaeomagnetic evidence. It is proposed that accretion of allochthonous terranes to eastern Laurentia was related to collision with the northwestern corner of South America in late Ordovician time, an idea supported by the affinities of Silurian and Devonian brachiopods from Venezuela and Colombia.