Middle Triassic carbonate platforms in eastern Iberia: Evolution of their fauna and palaeogeographic significance in the western Tethys

Abstract This article reports the first integrated study of the Middle Triassic of Iberia, based on the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and fossil fauna of Muschelkalk facies of the Iberian Ranges and the Catalan Coastal Ranges in Spain. On the basis of this study, new palaeogeographic reconstructions of the westernmost Tethys are proposed, and the evolution of the different palaeogeographic domains of Iberia (e.g., Iberian, Mediterranean, and Levantine–Balearic) are described. In these domains, Muschelkalk facies record the development of wide carbonate platforms that were the consequence of the first two broad marine transgressions of the Mesozoic in Iberia, respectively, late Pelsonian–earl…