Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) brachiopods in Asturias (Northern Spain): Stratigraphic distribution, critical events and palaeobiogeography

Brachiopod assemblages recorded in the Toarcian outcropping of the Asturian coast, between Gijón and Ribadesella, are described. In the Tenuicostatum Zone of the Early Toarcian, an assemblage dominated by Gibbirhynchia cantabrica nov. sp., which also includes some other species of North European affinities, has been recorded. Brachiopods disappear in the region at the end of this Zone, coinciding with a sedimentary episode of black shales, and they are not recorded again until the Variabilis Zone of the Middle Toarcian. Between this zone and the Aalensis Zone, several species appear with wide stratigraphic distribution but scarce representation, except for Soaresirhynchia renzi, which is very abundant, particularly in the Insigne Subzone. This assemblage differs from the ones recorded in other nearby Spanish basins and can be related to the ones described in part of the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal), Western Pyrenees and South-Western France. This similarity can be related to environmental characteristics, such as the existence in these cases of an external, relatively deep platform environment.