Ordovician conodont biodiversity analysis from the Precordillera (Argentina): a new insight in the global context of the GOBE

ABSTRACT

The rapid diversification of conodonts during the Ordovician has been extensively studied by several authors, each presenting distinct diversity curves for different paleocontinents. This study analyzes trends in conodont biodiversity in the Precordillera region, spanning from the late Tremadocian to the early Sandbian ages. A conodont dataset, incorporating species previously identified in sections across Central and Eastern Precordillera, is utillized. This contribution presents the conodont diversity curve for the Lower to early Upper Ordovician in the Precordillera for the first time. The resulting conodont biodiversity pattern reveals that the initial peak of diversification occurs during the O. intermedius Zone (middle-late Floian). A sharp decline in biodiversity is observed during the Dapingian. Finally, during the early Darriwilian, there is a rise in the diversification of conodont species, reaching a peak in the L. pseudoplaunus Zone. This pattern is also compared to curves from Baltica, South China, North China, and Tarim, showing similar trends among them. The variation in Lower-Middle Ordovician conodont diversity in the Precordillera may be linked to different pulses or events within the ‘GOBE’ (Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event).

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• Floian
• Dapingian
• Darriwilian
• global event
• San Juan Formation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to CONICET (National Research Council of Argentina) for supporting this contribution through the grant PIP-2021-1673CO. We are thankful to Dra. Josefina Carlorosi, Dr. Peep Männik and the anonymou reviewer for their constructive revisions and comments on the manuscript, which greatly improved the quality of this article. Thanks go to Romina Atencio, for her assistance in improving the language of the manuscript. This work is a contribution to UNESCO-IUGS-IGCP 735, titled “Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician Life: Filling Knowledge Gaps in Early Paleozoic Biodiversification.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability statement

Data is provided as Supplementary material.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2023.2300647

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [PIP2014-0058CO].