Brachiopod palaeobiogeography in the western Tethys during the Early Jurassic diversity maximum: introduction of a Pontic Province

The biogeography of Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic) brachiopods in western Tethys is investigated using complementary multivariate tools including metric and non-metric ordination, additive cluster and bootstrapped spanning network analyses, as well as one-way analysis of similarity and similarity percentage analysis. All analyses were conducted using the Dice and Simpson similarity indices for presence/absence data on occurrence datasets involving 24 assemblages homogenized at the species level, including (403 taxa) or excluding (210 taxa) species found in only one assemblage. The analyses present a highly consistent biogeographical picture involving three main clusters: the Euro-Boreal, Mediterranean and Pontic biochores. The brachiopod species typical of the newly defined Pontic biochore are illustrated. The three assemblages from the Atlas area are interpreted as a fourth biochore, compositionally intermediate between those of the Euro-Boreal and Mediterranean. The Mediterranean biochore can be further divided into an intra- and a peri-Mediterranean group. These five, palaeogeographically well-constrained biochores show moderate to high degrees of species endemicity, ranging from 20% (Atlas) to 58% (Euro-Boreal). Based on available evidence, and after a reasonable cutback of the customary scale of ranks, the following biogeographical categories and names are suggested for the western Tethyan Pliensbachian brachiopod biochores: Euro-Boreal Province, Mediterranean Province (including an intra-Mediterranean and a peri-Mediterranean Subprovince), Pontic Province and Atlas Subprovince. In addition, a still poorly documented brachiopod biochore occurs on the Gondwana margin as a possible precursor of the extensive Middle to Late Jurassic Ethiopian Province