Late Cenomanian radiolitid rudists from the Jingzhushan Formation of the northern Lhasa Terrane
1 State Key Laboratory of Continental Evolution and Early Life, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Envi-ronments, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China
2 College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China
3 School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
4 Department of Earth System Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama-shi 930-8555, Japan
5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Abstract

This study documents a late Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) radiolitid rudist assemblage from the basal part of the Jingzhushan Formation in the northern Lhasa Terrane, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The radiolitid fauna includes Paronaites zuffardii, Eoradiolites liratus, Sauvagesia cf. sharpei, and Auroradiolites biconvexus, with the first three species constituting a characteristic late Cenomanian association widely distributed in the Mediterranean Tethys and the Middle East. Their presence in the Jingzhushan Formation, previously interpreted as deposited in alluvial-fan and braided-river systems, provides definitive evidence for a shallow-marine carbonate platform environment in the northern Lhasa Terrane during the late Cenomanian. The co-occurrence of the primitive genus Auroradiolites with more advanced radiolitids suggests a significant faunal transition and a notable radiation event of the Family Radiolitidae in eastern Tethys during the early Late Cretaceous. These findings contribute to understanding the paleogeographic evolution of the eastern Tethys, and the stratigraphic correlation of Cenomanian shallow-water carbonates between the eastern and western Tethys.

Keywords

Lhasa Terrace; Jingzhushan Formation; late Cenomanian; Radiolitidae

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