An isolated Cretaceous analogue of Madagascar on the Adria–Turkey microcontinent indicated by fossils in Brezina, Algeria

Abstract

A unique assemblage of arthropods (n = 32), ferns, horsetails and a ginkgo discovered in Algerian Brezina differs from all known (and rather uniform) Laurasian and Gondwanan Cretaceous biotas, suggesting a large isolated landmass at the microcontinent known as Adria-Turkey, Serbia-Turkey or "Greater Adria". The mineral assemblage is characteristic for siliciclastic sediments which underwent deep post-depositional burial and reached late diagenetic conditions of alteration. The ?Hauterivian assemblage of aquatic and terrestrial insects was dominated by cockroaches and beetles. Mantodean, tettigarctid cicad, aquatic ephemeropterans, dragonflies, spinicaudatan, and an arachnomorph spider also occur. Freshwater insects relate to Eurasian ones such as the beetle Timarchopsis cyrenaicus (PONOMARENKO, 1977) and mayfly Hexameropsis africana SINITSHENKOVA, 1975 or belong to cosmopolitan biota as a dragonfly pre-imaginal stage (Aeschnoidea, ?Gomphaeschnidae). The continental biota differed. Cockroaches except Elisama GIEBEL, 1856, praying mantis and possibly also dragonfly genera were mostly indigenous and distant from the known morphotypes. The extinct family Mesoblattinidae (represented by Otazka systematicka gen. et sp. n., Meloblatta brezinica gen. et sp. n.) and the stillextant Corydiidae (Afrophaga extincta gen. et sp. n.) dominated. The Mesozoic families Blattulidae (? Elisama algeriaensis sp. n.) and Liberiblattinidae (Kriedoblatta gondwanensis gen. et sp. n. and ? Kurablattina samsonovi sp. n. restricted record in Early Jurassic of Australia), and Holocompsinae (Sajda equatorialis gen. et sp. n.) restricted to Spain during Cretaceous and also represented by extant forms were also present. The dominant Laurasian Caloblattinidae and Gondwanan (and burmite) Alienopteridae were not preserved or absent.