Late Miocene palaeobiogeography of the Mediterranean-Atlantic Region: An analysis based on shelf ostracod assemblages of the Northwestern Morocco

A Late Miocene palaeobiogeographic framework of the Mediterranean-Atlantic Region, based on a comparative study of the continental shelf ostracod assemblages collected from a section in the Saïss Basin, northwestern Morocco, is proposed. Distribution data and statistical analyses allowed to identify six palaeoecoregions. Five of these units, that is South European Atlantic Shelf, Saharan Upwelling, Adriatic Sea, Western Mediterranean and Alboran Sea, were identified according to the ecoregions used in modern biogeographic frameworks. For the easternmost part of the Proto-Mediterranean basin a "Late Miocene Southeastern Mediterranean" palaeoecoregion is proposed. The Tortonian-Messinian palaeobiogeography of the so-called "Miocene European-West African Province", preceding the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, was under the influence of the relationships between Atlantic and Proto-Mediterranean biota in tropical, subtropical and possibly warm temperate waters.