An abundant early Silurian brachiopod assemblage of 14 species, with strong affinities to the early Rhuddanian faunas of Britain and Baltoscandia, was recovered from the Akkerme Peninsula, on the western side of Lake Balkhash, southern Central Kazakstan. The occurrence of Stricklandia lens mullochensis, which is ttre earliest member of the Stricklandia-Costistricklandia lineage, dates this brachiopod assemblage as early Rhuddanian, within a stratigraphic interval from the Akidograptus acuminatus to the lower part of the Monagraptus cyphus graptolite biozones. This is the first well documented record of early Rhuddanian brachiopods in Kazakhstan. The assemblage also includes Meifodia tulkulensis sp. nov. and Eospirifer cinghizicus with well preserved spiralia. The co-occurrence of Stricklandia lens mullochensis and Eospirifer cinghizicus has not been recorded previously and is regarded here as the most signiffcant difference between the early Rhuddanan brachiopod faunas of the Baltic (East-European) Plate and Britain; in contrast Eospirifer first appears in the two latter areas in the late Llandovery.
In the Derenjal Mountains of east Central Iran, the upper part of the Shirgesht Formation (uppermost Darriwilian) contains a distinct trilobite assemblage that includes Neseuretinus birmanicus and Ovalocephalus aff. obsoletus among others. Both genera were previously unknown in Iran. The occurrence of Ovalocephalus represents the earliest sign of westward taxon migration from China towards higher latitudes along the West Gondwanan margin, which may be related to global warming, after a short episode of cooler climate in the early to mid Darriwilian. Patterns of biogeographical distribution of Ovalocephalus and Neseuretinussuggest that Central Iran was part of an “overlap zone” where tropical and high latitude benthic taxa mingled.
Protanastrophia repanda gen. et sp. nov. is a reef−dwelling parastrophinid brachiopod in the Lower Silurian (uppermost Telychian) Attawapiskat Formation of the Hudson Bay region of Canada. It is characterized by a small, quasi−smooth shell with gentle anterior costae, a tendency towards an asymmetrical, sigmoidal anterior commissure, and widely separate, subparallel inner hinge plates. Protanastrophia first appeared in the marginal seas of Siberia (Altai, Mongolia) during the Late Ordovician, retaining the primitive character of discrete inner hinge plates in the superfamily Camerelloidea, and preferred a carbonate mound depositional environment. It survived the Late Ordovician mass extinction and subsequently spread to Baltica and Laurentia during Early Silurian (Llandovery) time. Superficially similar asymmetrical shells of Parastrophina portentosa occur in the Upper Ordovician carbonate mound facies of Kazakhstan but differ internally from the new genus in having a septum−supported septalium. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that, within the Camerelloidea, asymmetrical shells with a sigmoidal anterior commissure evolved in Protanastrophia repanda and Parastrophina portentosa independently during the Late Ordovician as a case of homoplasy. The two species belong to separate parastrophinid lineages that evolved in widely separate palaeogeographic regions.
A new, unusual rhynchonellide brachiopod Jafarirhynchus alatus assigned to the newly established family Jafarirhynchidae is described from the Silurian (Telychian) of the Boghu Mountains in east-central Iran. It forms a low diversity association with the spiriferide Striispirifer? ocissimus, which exhibits well preserved calcified brachial supports. A strophic shell, well-developed ventral interarea and liberosessile mode of life make this taxon unique among Palaeozoic rhynchonellide brachiopods. In spite of a superficial similarity to spiriferides and the atrypide family Davidsonioidea, Jafarirhynchus retains the typical rhynchotrematoid cardinalia with a septalium supported by the median septum, a septiform cardinal process and long, raduliform crura. It is considered as an offshoot of the local lineage, which includes two successive species of Stegocornu (family Rhynchotrematidae) which proliferated in Central Iran and adjacent Afghanistan during Aeronian time.
A low diversity association made up of the lingulid Tunisiglossa almalensis Popov and Mambetov, sp. nov. and the gastropod Ptychonema agyris Ebbestad, sp. nov. is described from the Upper Member of the Almaly Formation at Kyrgyz Range, North Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan. The specimens co−occur in dense coquinas, made up of different sized individuals, deposited in a shallow water, intertidal, and storm driven depositional environment. The lingulid shells display a completely reduced dorsal pseudointerarea typical of Glossellinae, and the smooth shell lacking fine external granulation, radial or pitted ornament, a small ventral pseudointerarea, and no dorsal median ridge place it in the hitherto monotypic Tunisiglossa known previously only from the Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) Sanrhar Formation of Libya. It compares with Ectenoglossa sorbulakensis that is widespread in the lower to middle Caradocian Anderken Formation of Chu−Ili Range in southern Kazakhstan. Gastropods of this age have not been reported earlier in Kyrgyzstan; neither can Ptychonema be compare with any taxon in the gastropod association earlier described from the contemporary Anderken Formation in Kazakhstan. Ptychonema is otherwise commonly associated with peri−Gondwana terranes, but the Late Ordovician dispersal pattern of the genus is unknown. Overall, however, the Upper Ordovician faunas of North Tien Shan show close similarities to contemporaneous faunas of the Chu−Ili terrane, which have strong biogeographic signatures linking them to the faunas of South and North China.
A medium−diversity fauna of late Ordovician rhynchonelliformean brachiopods occurs in the Tauken Formation (upper Caradoc–lowermost Ashgill) of north Central Kazakhstan.It demonstrates close similarity to the approximately contemporaneous faunas characteristic of shallow clastic shelves (BA 2–3) of the Chingiz and Chu−Ili ranges (both in Kazakhstan) and South China, but is characterized by a high proportion of endemic new species, including Tetraphalerella bestiubensis sp.nov., Glyptomena kaskolica sp.nov., Dinorthis taukensis sp.nov., Rhynchotrema seletensis sp.nov., and Nalivkinia (Pronalivkinia)zvontsovisp.nov.The abundance of Rhynchotrema is somewhat unusual by comparison with faunas from other Kazakhstanian terranes, where rhynchonellides of the family Ancistrorhynchidae are usually dominant in near−shore biofacies.The occurrence of the atrypides Sulcatospira and early Nalivkinia demonstrates a clear biogeographical linkage with approximately contemporaneous faunas of South China.
Early Middle Cambrian (Amgian) lingulate brachiopods from the Tarbagatay Range in eastern Kazakhstan represent mostly endemic taxa, which may suggest that the Tarbagatay Range was relatively isolated from adjacent terranes during that time; only Kleithriatreta indicate similarity with the Australian part of Gondwana, as well as with the south and central Kazakhstanian terranes. Late Middle Cambrian (Mayan) taxa from the same area are mostly cosmopolitan. Kostjubella relaxata gen. et sp. n., Prototreta (?) dolosa sp. n. and Stilpnotreta galinae sp. n. are proposed.
Ordovician ostracods are described for the first time from Iran, enhancing the record of this group from the Lower Palaeozoic of the Middle East. The ostracods occur in the Shirgesht Formation, in the east central part of the country, and comprise Ogmoopsis achaemenid sp. nov., Cerninella aryana sp. nov., Ordovizona amyitisae sp. nov., cf. Aechmina? ventadorni, Vogdesella sp., and podocope taxa tentatively identified as species of Longiscula, Pullvillites, and Rectella. These taxa were hitherto unknown from this region. The ostracod−bearing interval is associated with trilobites (Neseuretinus) and brachiopods (Nicolella) that suggest a late Middle Ordovician age. Although the ostracod fauna is small, it demonstrates biogeographical links at genus−level, and possibly at species−level, with the fauna of the late Middle Ordovician Travesout Formation of western France, which also lay in a peri−Gondwanan palaeogeographical setting. It also suggests the potential use of some ostracods as stratigraphical tools for correlating Ordovician rock successions between Europe and the Middle East.
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