Pachytraga carpathica sp. nov. (Hippuritida, Caprinidae) from the Barremian of the Carpatho-Balkanic region, Romania. Evolutionary and biogeographic implications for the genus Pachytraga Paquier

A new species of the genus Pachytraga, P. carpathica sp. nov., is described from the Mediterranean Tethyan domain, identified in Barremian platform carbonates of Romania. The species was recorded in the Apuseni Mountains and the Carpatho-Balkan region in beds with a lower Barremian micropalaeontological assemblage. The evolutionary character of the new taxon is relatively primitive but represents a mosaic of the antecedent Pachytraga tubiconcha and succeeding Pachytraga paradoxa. This discovery potentially fills an evolutionary gap between the two former stratigraphically disjunct species, but the emergence of Pachytraga paradoxa remains problematic.