The Middle to Upper Jurassic stable isotope record of Madagascar: Linking temperature changes with plate tectonics during the break-up of Gondwana

Stable isotope (δ18O, δ13C) analyses were performed on well preserved belemnites, oysters, and rhynchonellid brachiopods from the Middle to Upper Jurassic of the Morondava Basin in southern Madagascar. Both brachiopods and oysters indicate similar average temperatures of 18.7 to 19.3 °C in the Early Callovian, followed by a temperature decrease towards the Middle Oxfordian (13.9 °C) and a minimum in the Early Kimmeridgian (12.3 °C). In contrast,...