Global paleogeography and paleobiogeography of the Toarcian (Early Jurassic) on the brachiopods

This article is devoted to the actual problems of the global paleogeography and paleobiogeography in the Toarcian stage of the Jurassic period. The authors proposed a new model on the basis of spatio-temporal analysis of Toarcian brachiopods and materials of deep-sea drilling of the seabed of the World Ocean. It was established that in the Toarcian stage the paleogeography of the Earth was represented by three supercontinents Afalia, Pacifida and Arasa and two continents Hyperborea and Antarctida, which were separated by shallow shelf sea basins, about 2000-3000 km wide. Completed paleoreconstructions showed the Boreal basin was connected to the Tethys West and East straits. Based on the analysis of climatic zonality and the spatial-temporal distribution of the Toarcian brachiopods three paleozoochories of higher rank Equatorial, Boreal, and Notal superrealms were distinguished. The Equatorial Superrealm was represented by the Alpine-Melanesian-Chinese and West-South American biogeographical realms, the first was divided into the Alpine-Caucasian, Sino-Japanese and Melanesian provinces. The Alpine-Caucasian province were represented by three subprovinces: European, North-African and Crimean-Caucasian-Arabian. Boreal superrealms is represented by the Siberian-Alaska realm and the Western Canadian province of the West-North American realms. The Nevadan province of this realm is part of the Equatorial Superealm. The New Zealand-New Caledonian realm in the Notal superrealm is included.