Hispanic Corridor formed as early as Hettangian: On the basis of bivalve fossils

After tracking the historical distribution of the pectinids being very capable of dispersion, it is easy to be found that the bivalves Chlamys (Chlamys) valoniensis (Defrance), Camptonectes (Camptonectes) auritus (yon Schlotheim) and Chlamys (Chlamys) textoria (von Schlotheim) first occurred in the Late Rhaetian, the end of the Triassic, or the earliest Hettangian, the earliest Jurassic of western Europe, and subsequently they spread into the southeastern coast of Palaeo-pacific through the Hispanic Corridor during the Hettangian or a little later. It has demonstrated that the Hispanic epicontinental seaway became established along the rifting area between North America and South America and Africa of the Pangaean supercontinent as early as Hettangian or even earlier, connecting western Tethys and eastern Palaeo-pacific and providing a corridor for migration and exchange of creatures between Tethys and Palaeo-pacific.