Patterns of extinction and recovery across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary interval in three resilient Southern Tethyan carbonate platforms

Abstract

During the end-Triassic extinction (ETE), carbonate platform biocalcifiers suffered high extinction rates that have been linked to volcanically-induced global changes in climate and carbon cycle. Most studies have been focused on the classical sections of the Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA, Austria) and Lombardy Basin (Italy), where the extinction of the aragonitic Dachstein-type biota (involutinid foraminifera and megalodontid bivalves) coincides with the demise of the carbonate platform and with the initial negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) of the reference sections for the Triassic/Jurassic Boundary (TJB).In this study, we present a detailed facies analysis, bio- and carbon-isotope stratigraphy of three Southern Tethyan carbonate platform sections, Mt. Messapion (Greece), Valle Agricola and Mt. Sparagio (southern Italy) that instead show persisting carbonate productivity across the TJB and potentially preserve the most detailed record of timing and patterns of the ETE in these ecosystems.In the studied sections, the disappearance of the Dachstein-type biota is observed within a positive δ13Ccarb excursion that, according to our study, correlates with that documented in the Schattwald beds (NCA) and Malanotte Fm (Lombardy Basin) above the initial CIE. This level represents the true extinction of the Dachstein-type biota, while the disappearance in the Northern Tethyan sections of the NCA and Lombardy Basin represents a pseudoextinction coinciding with the carbonate platform demise. Above the ETE, Southern Tethyan carbonate platform sections are characterized either by microbial laminites or ooid and oncoid limestones and low-diversity associations.This study reveals a possible paleogeographic and/or latitudinal control on the response of biocalcifiers and carbonate platform ecosystems during the ETE. The Dachstein-type biota was resilient to the environmental perturbations associated with the initial CIE in Southern Tethys, but probably failed to survive subsequent and/or prolonged stress. Despite extinctions, Southern Tethyan carbonate platforms adapted to environmental disturbances through a shift of the dominant carbonate production style from aragonitic biocalcification to chemical and microbially-mediated CaCO3 precipitation. The ecosystem recovery was slow and aragonitic biocalcifiers (dasycladacean algae) reappeared during the early Sinemurian.