2025/10/21 by Marcelo G. Carrera, Andrea F. Sterren, Gabriela A. Cisterna +1 · 1 voice
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Marine Biology and Environmental Chemistry #Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
paper · doi:10.7203/sjp.31838
openalex publication_date 2025/10/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Tabulipora Young, 1883 is one of the most characteristic Carboniferous–Permian bryozoan genera recorded worldwide. Numerous species of this genus show wide variety of morphology and size. However, several species are considered among the largest bryozoan forms, and this includes the Argentinean Tabulipora described in this contribution. The specimens are ramose forms reaching 15cm in maximum zoarial length and 2 cm in branch diameter. The fossil material comes from the Arizaro Formation, Puna region (Salta province) in north-western Argentina. This unit is separated in three members developed in a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic marine shelf palaeoenvironment. The record of abundant bryozoan specimens and a varied fauna of invertebrates including brachiopods, bivalves, crinoids, gastropods, ostracods, and benthic foraminifers are comparable to nearby basins in northern Chile (Cerro El Árbol, Cerros de Cuevitas and Juan de Morales formations), Bolivia and Peru (Copacabana Formation). All these basins have been included in the Andean bryozoan province which characterises an intermediate climatic latitudinal gradient from the equatorial to subtropical areas in Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia to temperate conditions in northern Chile and Argentina. This gradient can be followed southward in southern Gondwana with the development of typical high-latitude bryozoan associations. The presence of giant taxa, such as Tabulipora, suggests a latitudinal effect on the size of these faunas.