El Paleozoico Superior marino de la República Argentina, bioestratigrafía y Paleoclimatología

Abstract

The Leoipustula levis Zone and the Cancrinella Zone proved to be practical guides for Carboniferous and Lower Perrnian marine strata in Argentina. Two other fossil faunas are also useful in biostratigraphical analysis for Upper Paleozoic rocks: the Protocanites fauna and specially the "Eurydesma fauna". Even though more palaeontological research is required, a Protocanites Zone is herein provisionally proposed for the lowermost Carboniferous in the Río Blanco Basin of western Argentina. The "Eurydesma fauna" occurs in Lower Permian heds in two localities from Eastern and western Argentina. Occurrence of a primitive "Eurydesma fauna" in Carboniferous beds in Patagonia is briefly commented. Under lithological, faunal and paleomagnetic information, the glacial age in the southern portion of the South American Gondwana province seems to have had an interglacial stage. Biostratigraphical interpretation is submitted in a correlation chart for marine Carboniferous and Fennian strata in Argentina, as compared with European stages.