Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous Foraminiferal Fauna: Zonations, Evolutionary Events, Paleobiogeography and Tectonic Implications
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2002 |
| Type | Monograph |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | A brief review of the most important foraminiferal zonations, and late Devonian-early Carboniferous foraminiferal zonation in Moravia where some key profiles enable a good correlation with conodont zonation and correlation of the zones established in Moravia with other important zonations in all paleobiogeographic realms are presented in the beginning of the monography. In late Devonian - early Carboniferous fourteen foraminiferal zones, that closely compare to those defined in the Eastern Europe, are precisely defined in Moravia and correlated with zonations based on other groups of fauna (corals, stromatoporoids, conodonts, ammonoids). The correlations of foraminiferal zonations mostly confirm a similar development of foraminiferal faunas of Western and Eastern Europe. Certain difficulties are met when different index species and taxonomic approaches are used (the middle-late Visean and some differencies are observed in early and late Tournaisian. Correlations between different paleobiogeographic realms of the North Hemisphere are more difficult and less exact, their precision being variable over time. Four freely interconnected late Devonian-early Carboniferous paleobiogeographical realms are distinguished in the paper: the tropical/subtropical North Paleotethyan Realm, North American Realm, the northern boreal Siberian Realm and in accordance with Leven (Leven 1993, Leven & Okay 1996) newly defined southern boreal Perigondwana Realm, North Paleotethyan Realm. Major evolutionary events of foraminiferal fauna may be summarized in the following way: 1) major late Frasnian diversification of multilocular forms 2) Frasnian/Famennian exctinction 3) Early Famennian low diversity 4) Late Famennian diversification of Quasiendothyra fauna 5) Devonian/Carboniferous stepwise extinction of quasiendothyrs 6) Early Tournaisian low diversity 7) Middle Tournaisian diversification of Chernyshinella fauna 8) Middle/Late Tournaisian decline of chernyshinells 9) Late Tournaisian diversification of Kizel and Kosvin fauna 10) Visean diversification reaching its acme in the late Visean The evolution of foraminiferal fauna was closely connected with climatic oscillations the pattern of which seems to represent a certain cyclic trend within the late Devonian and early Carboniferous. The impact of foraminiferal paleobiogeography on plate tectonic reconstructions at the SE margin of Laurussia and in SW Asia is discussed. |
| Related projects: |