NEW BRACHIOPOD FAUNAS FROM THE MIDDLE JURASSIC OF ZANSKAR (LADAKH, INDIA)

Abstract

Several detailed stratigraphical sections have been measured in the Middle Jurassic of the Zan­skar region (Western Himalaya, Ladakh, India). Along six sections in the Laptal Beds and in the Ferruginous Oolite Formation, a rich brachiopod fauna, associated with a few ammonites, has been collected. Most of the brachiopod species are new for the Himalayan region, been so far typical of the Northern Tethys margin. A species, lvanoviella gaetanii sp. n., is erected on material from the Ferruginous Oolite Formation. The age of the lithostratigraphic units yielding fossils is discussed from both brachiopods and ammonites: though little discrepancies are present between the inferred age of brachiopods and ammonites, a Bathonian age for the Laptal Beds and a ?Bathonian, Early Callovian to Oxfordian age for the Ferruginous Oolite Formation is established.