The Iberian Chain developed by inversion of Mesozoic rifts of the Iberian Basin during the Paleogene. The
Maestrat and Cameros basins developed during the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rifting cycle 2. There
are two main controls on sedimentation: (1) tectonics, (2) climate, and these together control sea-level
and paleoecosystems. Cameros and Maestrat basins display different styles of extensional tectonic structure
probably due to a crust thermally weakened. Biotic changes in freshwater plants, continental faunas, and
marine carbonate producers, reveal the evolution from Late Jurassic-Earliest Cretaceous climate to show
hydrological seasonality in a general warm and humid context. This is confirmed by the coexistence of
biotic markers of hydrological stress (closed stomatal structures in plants, small size in animals) with
sedimentologic indicators of a long-lasting humid climate (lateritic soils and karstic bauxite deposits). The
long-term global sea-level curve fits the main transgressive-regressive evolution of the Maestrat basin with
some local tectonic disturbances
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