Lower Cretaceous brachiopod-bearing succession in a shallow-water open marine Prebetic platform (South-Iberian Paleomargin, SE Spain)

Lower Cretaceous brachiopod-bearing successions remain scarcely documented in the Eastern Prebetic Domain. In the Betic Cordillera, brachiopod occurrences have traditionally been reported only sporadically and comprehensive systematic analyses are exceptionally rare. This study investigates brachiopod communities from the expanded shallow-water open marine platform succession of Serra Gelada (Alicante, SE Spain), one of the few Prebetic localities preserving abundant Lower Cretaceous brachiopod assemblages. The analysed succession encompasses a variety of depositional environments ranging from reefal and para-reefal settings to open marine habitats. Integrated taxonomic, biometric, microstructural, and biostratigraphic analyses are carried out on brachiopod assemblages spanning the Hauterivian–early Albian interval. The faunal succession comprises thirteen taxa, some of them recorded for the first time from the South Iberian Paleomargin, such as Sellithyris upwarensis , Gemmarcula crassicosta , Zittelina hofmanni , and Dzirulina sp. A new rhynchonellide species, Orbirhynchia yebenesi sp. nov., is formally erected, extending the scarce pre-Albian occurrences of the genus worldwide. Three brachiopod assemblages with biochronostratigraphic significance are identified and calibrated with the Standard Mediterranean Ammonite Zonation. Assemblage 1 is recorded around the Valanginian – Hauterivian boundary interval, in a chronostratigraphic interval that include the basal Acanthodiscus radiatus Zone; Assemblage 2 is assigned to the middle–upper Aptian, including the Dufrenoyia furcata Zone; and Assemblage 3 is attributed to the lower Albian, within the Douvilleiceras leightonense–D. mammillatum zones. These results provide the first calibrated Lower Cretaceous brachiopod biochronostratigraphic framework for the South Iberian Paleomargin and establish a basis for subsequent biostratigraphic and paleobiogeographic correlations between shallow-water Prebetic and deeper Subbetic brachiopod communities within the Western Tethyan realm.