Biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental characterization of the Middle Ordovician from the Sierras Subandinas (NW Argentina) based on organic-walled microfossils and sequence stratigraphy

Middle Ordovician acritarchs, including enigmatic, spore-like microfossils, are recorded from the Labrado and Capillas formations, of the Sierras Subandinas (Capillas River Section, Sierra de Zapla), northwestern Argentina. The Sierras Subandinas represent the outermost exposures of the Central Andean Basin that display an alternation of shallow-marine deltaic systems and estuarine environments, where relative sea-level fluctuations are frequent. The scarcity of fossils in the section, due to the marginal marine settings and frequent subaerial exposures, hinders the biostratigraphic constraining of these sedimentary successions. Based on the palynological assemblages, a probably Dapingian age is interpreted for the upper Lagunilla Member of the Labrado Formation, whereas the lower part of the Capillas Formation is assigned to the Darriwilian. Acritarchs from the lower part of the Capillas Formation indicate clear affinities with the "peri-Gondwana province". However the lack of Frankea, a marker taxa for the Middle Ordovician, could be related either to the intermediate paleolatitudinal position of the Central Andean Basin or to local paleoenvironmental conditions. The facies analysis and the distribution of palynomorph assemblages throughout the studied section, suggest that organic-walled microfossils are influenced by local paleoenvironmental conditions. A probable non-marine origin is proposed for the spore-like microfossils co-occurring within the acritarch assemblages. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved