Bakevelliidae bivalves of the Romualdo Formation (Alagoas stage, Lower Cretaceous), Araripe Basin, Brazil: paleoenvironmental and paleogeographic significance

• Grant number: 18/01750-7
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Cooperation agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal researcher: Marcello Guimarães Simões
• Grantee: Mariza Gomes Rodrigues
• Home Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The geological events related to the final stages of the Gondwana breakup and the subsequent opening of the South Atlantic Ocean caused fault reactivation of the Proterozoic Borborema Province and originated the Cretaceous deposits of the Araripe Basin. During Aptian times a widespread transgression took place in the Northeastern Brazil, culminating with the deposition of the marine strata of the Romualdo Formation. The 100-meter-thick carbonate-siliciclastic succession of the Romualdo Formation is characterized by a transgressive-regressive sequence bounded by regional unconformities. Several paleogeographic scenarios have been hypothesized about the origin and ways of the marine ingression that reached the Araripe Basin during the Lower Cretaceous. The most accepted theories advocate marine waters coming from North, through São Luís and Parnaíba basins, northeast, by the Potiguar Basin, and southeast, crossing the limits of the Sergipe-Alagoas basins. In this context, the bivalve mollusk from the Romualdo Formation, specially the Bakevelliidae, are key elements to elucidate the Aptian paleogeographic scenario. Bakevelliidae is an extinct family (Carboniferous-Eocene) of marine to salty water pterioid bivalves with wide paleobiogegraphic distribution. The integrated taxonomic, taphonomic, stratigraphic, paleoecologic and biocorrelation analysis of Bakevelliidae from the Romualdo Formation will be used to verify if: I- there is any affinity between invertebrate faunas in coeval unities from the Araripe Basin (Romualdo Formation), and the Sergipe Basin (Riachuelo Formation); II- a seaway could be existed between both sedimentary basins; and III- the invertebrate faunal diversity of the Romualdo Formation would be, at least in part, a result of immigrant elements (cosmopolitan) and not just endemic forms that evolved in situ in the Araripe Basin. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FILIPE GIOVANINI VAREJÃO; VICTOR RIBEIRO SILVA; MARIO LUIS ASSINE; LUCAS VERÍSSIMO WARREN; SUZANA APARECIDA MATOS; MARIZA GOMES RODRIGUES; FRANZ THEODOR FÜRSICH; MARCELLO GUIMARÃES SIMÕES. Marine or freshwater? Accessing the paleoenvironmental parameters of the Caldas Bed, a key marker bed in the Crato Formation (Araripe Basin, NE Brazil). BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY, v. 51, n. 1, p. -, 2021.

RODRIGUES, M. G.; MATOS, S. A.; VAREJAO, F. G.; FUERSICH, F. T.; WARREN, L. V.; ASSINE, M. L.; SIMOES, M. G. Short-lived ``Bakevelliid-Sea{''} in the Aptian Romualdo Formation, Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil. CRETACEOUS RESEARCH, v. 115, NOV 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

DA SILVA, VICTOR R.; VAREJAO, FILIPE G.; MATOS, SUZANA A.; RODRIGUES, MARIZA G.; FURSICH, FRANZ T.; SKAWINA, ALEKSANDRA; SCHNEIDER, SIMON; WARREN, V, LUCAS; ASSINE, MARIO L.; SIMOES, MARCELLO G. New freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionida) with potential trigonioidid and hyriid affinities from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil. GEOBIOS, v. 61, p. 41-54, AUG 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.

VAREJAO, F. G.; FUERSICH, F. T.; WARREN, V, L.; MATOS, S. A.; RODRIGUES, M. G.; ASSINE, M. L.; SALES, A. M. F.; SIMOES, M. G. Microbialite fields developed in a protected rocky coastline: The shallow carbonate ramp of the Aptian Romualdo Formation (Araripe Basin, NE Brazil). SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY, v. 389, p. 103-120, JUL 1 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.