Palaeotethys Ocean closed before Capitanian times in Hohxil area (W China): New data on the temporal extent of the Palaeotethys

Previous authors concluded that the Palaeotethys Ocean closed at the end of the Permian or during the Triassic. However, the latest palaeontological r esults from the Hohxil (desert) of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau demon strate that, in Hohxil, the Palaeotethys closed before the Capitanian (Late Permian), because the carbonate rocks of the sedimentary cover of the ophi olitic melange, yielding the Visean Albaillella indensis and Wolfcampian Ps eudoalbaillella scaprata rhombothoracta radiolarian assemblages, contain th e Wuchiapingian Codonofusiella lui fusulinid zone and the Capitanian Neogon dolella rosenkrantzi conodont zone.