Mathesia darderi (Astre) (Bivalvia, Hippuritoidea, Monopleuridae): Morphological, biogeographical and ecological changes in the Mediterranean domain during the late Barremian–Albian

Mathesia darderi, a slender cylindrical monopleurid genus, formerly documented from the late Aptian–Albian of Spain, France, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Turkey, has been discovered in the upper Barremian and the lower Aptian of Bulgaria and Spain. Notwithstanding some morphological changes, Barremian–lower Aptian forms and those of the upper Aptian–Albian possess the same myocardinal organisation and the same microstructural attributes. The inner shell margin of the right valve displays scalloped, festooned, tubular and vermiform microstructures. The most prominent evolutionary trait of M. darderi is the increase in body size through time. A statistical analysis of size distributions show that populations of the late Barremian–early Aptian, and the late Aptian, and those of the early to middle Albian, are significantly different; a pattern which has a biostratigraphic potential. Ecological changes through time are expressed by a displacement of communities from the central/distal part, to the proximal part of carbonate platforms. M. darderi is present locally in the upper Barremian–lower Aptian, and has its major spreading over the European and Arabo–African margins of the Mediterranean Tethys during the Clansayesian–lower to middle Albian. The disappearance of the species at the Middle–Upper Albian boundary, correlates with a critical, spatial reduction of carbonate platforms.