Nuevos datos sobre las faunas marinas del Eoceno medio-superior de Navarra (área surpirenaica occidental). Revisión de los fósiles de la colección Ruiz de Gaona

During Eocene times the Pyrenean area may have played an important role as a paleobiogeographic link between the Western Tethys and the North Atlantic domains. However, its marine faunas are still poorly documented. This paper presents the results of a first study on the mid–upper Eocene (Lutetian to Priabonian) marine macrofossils of Navarre included in the paleontological collection of Maximo Ruiz de Gaona, a researcher whose studies on the geology and paleontology of this territory constitute an obligatory historical reference. The described fossils come from the Eocene marly formations of the Pamplona basin and the Urbasa-Andia limestone Formation and overlying deposits, in the Estella-Urbasa area, west of the Pamplona fault. Some of the specimens studied come from outcrops that do not exist any longer. This fact increases the interest of conservation and the study of this collection. The paleontological data from the Estella-Urbasa area are almost entirely new. This study has allowed the description of 24 taxa of marine macrofauna. Seven of them ─Cyclolitopsis patera, Funginellastraea barcelonensis, Pycnodonte rarilamella, Metacrinus sp., Triplacidia sp., in addition to an indeterminate Cyclostomatida bryozoan and an indeterminate Serpulidae annelid─ are new to the fossil record of Navarre. The macropaleontological associations described in this and previous works are not as diverse as those from other coeval European geological regions. In addition to possible ecological conditions, sampling biases and, above all, taphonomic biases, specifically the loss of invertebrate species with aragonite skeletons, arise as the main explanation.