The results of the international team comprising researchers from the Facultad de Ciencias de la Tierra and IRBio of the Universidad de Barcelona (UB), the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), the University of Vienna in Austria, and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) of Mexico, show that the archipelago hosted a charophyte flora different from that of the neighbouring continents that was characterized by a high diversity of endemic charophyte species of the Clavatoraceae family.

The population flow between the islands must have been good, since no significant taxonomic differences are found between them. Within the archipelago, some floristic patterns can be observed, both latitudinal (climate-related) and longitudinal (probably related to animal dispersal vectors). On the other hand, the Tethyan Archipelago provides the first record of some species that would later be distributed in large areas of the planet, including species that would become cosmopolitan in a latitudinal strip.

Image 1. Distribution of endemic charophyte species within the Tethys Archipelago during the Barremian and Early Aptian (between 129 and 120 million years ago).

Comparison with ostracods, a group of aquatic crustaceans that often lived in charophyte meadows, shows that these biogeographic patterns could be extrapolated to other groups in the same archipelago, forming what would probably be a distinct bioprovince. 

Main image: World paleogeographic map of the boundary between the Barremian and Early Aptian (around 129 to 120 million years ago).

Original article:

• Vicente, A., Sanjuan, J., Pérez-Cano, J., Trebelsi, K., & Martín-Closas, C. (2023). A bioprovince for the Barremian–Aptian charophytes of the Central Tethyan Archipelago. Cretaceous Research, 154, 105752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105752