Paleotethyan faunal/floral evidence in the Mississippian Maritimes Basin of Canada: An overview

In this study, middle to late Mississippian microfossil assemblages from the Maritimes Basin of eastern Canada (Nova Scotia, SW Newfoundland, and New Brunswick) are closely compared to those from Western Paleotethys basins. The comparison is focused mainly on foraminifers and calcareous algae. Most foraminifers and algae described from the Maritimes Basin are considered cosmopolitan, and the occurrence in western Europe and northern Africa of taxa previously considered endemic to the North America Realm suggests a close paleobiogeographic relationship. This European/African correlation is further supported by other foraminiferal/algal taxa, the importance of which were previously overlooked, including: Plectogyranopsis ex gr. P. hirosei (Okimura, 1965), Mikhailovella Ganelina, 1956, Koktjubina windsorensis (Mamet, 1970), Polysphaerinella bulla Mamet, 1973, Mstinia Dain in Dain and Grozdilova, 1953, Haplophragmina Reitlinger, 1950, Omphalotis Shlykova, 1969, Pseudolituotuba Vdovenko, 1971, Pseudoendothyra Mikhailov, 1939, Saccamminopsis (Sollas, 1921) Vachard and Cozar, 2003, Kamaenella Mamet and Roux, 1974, and Anthracoporellopsis Maslov, 1956. Some species recorded in the Maritimes Basin have been typically recorded in Britain and Ireland in the southern platform of Laurussia. This implies a connection via the Rhenohercynian Ocean, whereas statistical analyses suggest that Maritimes Basin assemblages are closer to those of the Gondwana platform, which could have been established via the Paleotethys Ocean, and also with terranes northwest of the Variscan Front, in which its most logical connection should be with a still-open Rheic Ocean during the Visean and early Serpukhovian. Those taxa demonstrate a more-or-less continuous faunal and microfloral interchange between the Maritimes Basin and the Western Paleotethys paleobiogeographic realm. Furthermore, the width of the Paleotethys and Rheic oceans separating these regions is not considered excessive, particularly during the late Visean and early Serpukhovian.