Geodiversitas
37 (1) - Pages 31-57In the Tunisian North-South Axis, sections surveying on the Sidi Khalif (Kechem El Kelb) and on the Châabet El Attaris Jebels have provided abundant brachiopod faunas stratigraphically well located in the Lower-Middle Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) and in the Middle Jurassic. The collected species characterize at once the Southern and the Northern Margins of the Western Tethys, but also north-western european Bioprovince and some taxa of Arabic origin must be added in the Middle Jurassic. These brachiopods (19 species referred to 15 genera) are described and figured for the first time, any evidence having never be mentioned until nowadays on the North-African Margin, at East of Western Algeria. So, during the Toarcian, Tunisia plays a new link between Morocco and Western Algeria on the one hand and Arabic Bioprovince on the other hand. The Bajocian-Bathonian agrees with a period of non differentiated bioprovinces and it is from to the Callovian onwards that the brachiopod faunas of Arabic and Ethiopian origin will settle on Southern Tunisian Platforms. The results of this paper deal with the biostratigraphical data on Brachiopods, paleoenvironments where they lived and important indications on the paleogeography of Tunisia.
Tethys, Tunisia, Lower and Middle Jurassic, brachiopods, ammonites, biostratigraphy, paleoenvironments, paleogeography
