First record of a Hirnantia Fauna from Spain, and its contribution to the Late Ordovician palaeogeography of northern Gondwana

AbstractA new occurrence of the Hirnantia brachiopod fauna is documented from the Criadero Quartzite of Almadén, Ciudad Real Province, Spain. This unit is the regional development of a largely unfossiliferous sandy facies that frequently overlies the typical Late Ordovician diamictitic glaciomarine formations in the Iberian Peninsula and the Armorican Massif. The new occurrence establishes palaeontologically the latest Ashgill age of the quartzite, at least for its lowest horizons, and adds new data on a fauna that, although widespread, has been very rarely documented from peri-Gondwanan Europe. The new collection contains only Hirnantia sagittifera and Plectothyrella crassicosta chauveli. The subspecific status of the latter and its inclusion within Plectothyrella crassicosta is discussed herein, based on the continuous variation in rib thickness of several samples of both forms. The extremely low diversity and the occurrence of the key form P. c. chauveli, are both typical of the Bani Province that developed on the subpolar margins of Gondwana. This contrasts with other occurrences of the Hirnantia Fauna in peri-Gondwanan Europe, such as those from Sardinia and the Carnic Alps, which are characteristic of the more temperate Kosov Province.

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Hirnantia Fauna from the Condroz Inlier, Belgium: another case of a relict Ordovician shelly fauna in the Silurian?

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/jpa.2021.74 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-27

Author(s):

Sofia Pereira ◽

Jorge Colmenar ◽

Jan Mortier ◽

Jan Vanmeirhaeghe ◽

Jacques Verniers ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Late Ordovician ◽

Lake District ◽

Low Diversity ◽

Hirnantia Fauna ◽

And Sea Level

Abstract The end-Ordovician mass extinction, linked to a major glaciation, led to deep changes in Hirnantian–Rhuddanian biotas. The Hirnantia Fauna, the first of two Hirnantian survival brachiopod-dominated communities, characterizes the lower–mid Hirnantian deposits globally, and its distribution is essential to understand how the extinction took place. In this paper, we describe, illustrate, and discuss the first macrofossiliferous Hirnantia Fauna assemblage from Belgium, occurring in the Tihange Member of the Fosses Formation at Tihange (Huy), within the Central Condroz Inlier. Six fossiliferous beds have yielded a low-diversity, brachiopod-dominated association. In addition to the brachiopods (Eostropheodonta hirnantensis, Plectothyrella crassicosta, Hirnantia sp., and Trucizetina? sp.), one trilobite (Mucronaspis sp.), four pelmatozoans (Xenocrinus sp., Cyclocharax [col.] paucicrenulatus, Conspectocrinus [col.] celticus, and Pentagonocyclicus [col.] sp.), three graptolites (Cystograptus ancestralis, Normalograptus normalis, and ?Metabolograptus sp.), together with indeterminate machaeridians and bryozoans were identified. The graptolite assemblage, from the Akidograptus ascensus-Parakidograptus acuminatus Biozone, indicates an early Rhuddanian (Silurian) age, and thus, an unexpectedly late occurrence of a typical Hirnantia Fauna. This Belgian association may represent an additional example of relict Hirnantia Fauna in the Silurian, sharing characteristics with the only other known from Rhuddanian rocks at Yewdale Beck (Lake District, England), although reworking has not been completely ruled out. The survival of these Hirnantian taxa into the Silurian might be linked to delayed post-glacial effects of rising temperature and sea-level, which may have favored the establishment of refugia in these two particular regions that were paleogeographically close during the Late Ordovician–early Silurian.

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Late Ordovician brachiopod faunas from Pomeroy, Northern Ireland: a palaeoenvironmental synthesis

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0263593300001322 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 96 (4) ◽

pp. 317-325 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Yves Candela

Keyword(s):

Northern Ireland ◽

Shallow Water ◽

Deep Water ◽

Water Regime ◽

Late Ordovician ◽

Tectonic Events ◽

Low Diversity ◽

Storm Wave ◽

Laurentian Margin ◽

Brachiopod Fauna

ABSTRACTComparisons of the Caradoc assemblages with North American biofacies indicate that the Bardahessiagh Formation was deposited during a transgressive regime, which peaked with the presence of a typical Sericoidea association (member (II)). These diverse and exceptionally preserved faunas lived below the storm-wave base. The assemblages also contained a shallower water brachiopod component typical of transition zone environments or above, which may have been transported during periods of instability. A deep-water regime (BAs 4 to 4–5) through the Rawtheyan occurs with the deposition of the Killey Bridge Formation, which yielded a diverse brachiopod fauna including Bimuria, Chonetoidea and Christiania. The Rawtheyan assemblage also contains a shallower water component. Representatives of the deep-water Proboscisambon assemblage occur in middle parts of the Tirnaskea Formation. This distinctive low-diversity assemblage yields small, thin-shelled brachiopods including Dedzetina, Sericoidea, Protozyga and Proboscisambon. The upper parts of the Tirnaskea Formation yielded the low diversity, shallow water (BA 3) Hirnantia fauna, which is characterised by the presence of Eostropheodonta, which is a key form of the fauna, Dysprosorthis and the absence of Hirnantia. As a whole the changing brachiopod biofacies monitor environmental fluctuations, on part of the Laurentian margin, driven mainly by eustatic and tectonic events.

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First record of a Hirnantia Fauna from Spain, and its contribution to the Late Ordovician palaeogeography of northern Gondwana

Journal of African Earth Sciences ◽

10.1016/s0899-5362(99)90068-4 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. II

Keyword(s):

First Record ◽

Late Ordovician ◽

Hirnantia Fauna

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Review of the Ordovician rhynchonelliformean Brachiopoda of the East Baltic: their distribution and biofacies

Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark ◽

10.37570/bgsd-2003-50-02 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 50 ◽

pp. 29-43

Author(s):

Linda Hints ◽

David A.T. Harper

Keyword(s):

Sensu Stricto ◽

Taxonomic Composition ◽

Black Shales ◽

Sea Level Changes ◽

Low Diversity ◽

Different Types ◽

Time Changes ◽

Brachiopod Fauna ◽

The Baltic ◽

Hirnantia Fauna

Analyses of the distribution, in time and space, of approximately 300 Ordovician rhynchonelliformean brachiopods in the East Baltic allow the development of a faunal template for the Baltic Province (sensu stricto) within the context of the European Realm. Two different brachiopod magnafacies, the upper and lower ramp associations, are monitored through time. Changes in the brachiopod fauna through uppermost Hunneberg to the Porkuni stages are demonstrated from different drill core sections and some bedrock exposures located in facially contrasting areas across the region. The main developmental trends within the brachiopod biofacies of the shallower part of the palaeobasin (North Estonian facies belt) are characterized by relatively continuous changes in taxonomic composition including the evolution of endemics and the establishment of relatively persistent associations, especially during the later Ordovician. In the deeper parts of the palaeobasin (Central Baltoscandian confacies belt including the Livonian Tongue) the several different types, clearly determined by changes in environment, occur: Relatively low diversity associations in the red-coloured sediments, a well-defined assemblage associated with black shales and more diverse associations in the argillaceous carbonate deposits. The appearance and distribution of some shortlived associations including immigrants to the Baltic (Dactylogonia and Rhynchotrema during the Keila-Oandu event, the Holorhynchus association during the mid-Ashgill and the Hirnantia fauna during the late Ashgill) are probably associated with climatic and sea-level changes in the palaeobasin.

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Spatangoid echinoids from the Eocene of Jamaica

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/s0022336000032777 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 74 (4) ◽

pp. 654-661 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen K. Donovan ◽

Deborah-Ann C. Rowe

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

First Record ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Upper Eocene ◽

Area Effects ◽

Low Diversity ◽

First Time ◽

Incomplete Sampling

Paleocene spatangoids are unknown from the Antilles, apart from evidence from trace fossils. The peak of spatangoid diversity was the Eocene. Jamaican Oligo-Miocene spatangoids have a relatively low diversity compared with that of the Antillean region. Plio-Pleistocene spatangoids are poorly known from the Antilles (four genera), in contrast to the Oligo-Miocene (16 genera) and Holocene (17 genera). The depauperate Paleocene and Plio-Pleistocene spatangoid faunas are probably in part artifacts of incomplete sampling, facies-related absences, outcrop area effects and the relative brevity of these stratigraphic intervals.To the large echinoid fauna of the Swanswick Formation (Middle-Upper Eocene) of Jamaica is added the schizasterid Aguayoaster schickleri new species. This is the first record of this genus outside Cuba; it is distinctly more elongate than all other known specimens of this genus. The schizasterid Caribbaster loveni (Cotteau, 1875) is recorded from the Swanswick Formation for the first time, the youngest occurrence of this genus in Jamaica. The coeval Claremont Formation has not previously yielded spatangoid echinoids; the brissid Eupatagus cf. antillarum (Cotteau) from a new locality is the first spatangoid known from a lagoonal unit of the White Limestone Group.

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Late Ordovician deep-water brachiopod fauna from Raheen, Waterford Harbour, Ireland

Irish Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1353/ijes.2017.0000 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Matthew A. Parkes

Keyword(s):

Deep Water ◽

Late Ordovician ◽

Brachiopod Fauna

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Morphology and sexual dimorphism of living mature adults of Amphiduros fuscescens (Marenzeller, 1875) (Annelida, Hesionidae, Amphidurine), first reported for the Iberian Peninsula

Biodiversity Data Journal ◽

10.3897/bdj.9.e66020 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Martin ◽

Chiara Romano

Keyword(s):

Sexual Dimorphism ◽

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Taxonomic Status ◽

Single Species ◽

First Record ◽

The Body ◽

Valid Species ◽

Mature Adults ◽

Nw Mediterranean ◽

Cryptic Species Complex

To date, the genus Amphiduros (Annelida: Hesionidae: Amphidurine) is considered as monotypic. Its single species, Amphiduros fuscescens (Marenzeller, 1875), is well characterised by lacking proboscideal papillae and emerging acicular chaetae, as well as by having three antennae, eight pairs of tentacular cirri and inflated dorsal cirri with characteristic alternating length and colour (transparent, with median orange band and white tips) in live animals. Three specimens, one male and two females, were found below boulders at 5–7 m depth in Punta Santa Anna, Blanes and Cala Maset, Sant Feliu de Guixols (Catalan Sea, NW Mediterranean, Iberian Peninsula). Our finding allowed us to describe different, unreported morphological traits and lead us to support the existence of sexual dimorphism (in terms of colouring, cirri morphology and distribution of sexual products along the body). Despite A. fuscescens having been previously reported from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean (particularly in SE French coasts), the specimens from Blanes represent the first record of the species from the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, our molecular results strongly support that Amphiduros pacificus Hartman, 1961 from California (currently synonymised with A. fuscescens) requires to be re-described and reinstalled as a valid species. In turn, our morphological observations support suggesting all other non-Mediterranean reports of A. fuscescens, including the species still under synonymy (i.e. Amphidrornus izukai Hessle, 1925 and Amphidromus setosus Hessle, 1925) as likely being a cryptic species complex whose the taxonomic status requires further assessment.

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First record of the Levantine species Scoloplos haasi (Orbiniidae: Scolecida: Annelida) from the Mediterranean coast of Spain

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315409991305 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 90 (5) ◽

pp. 1051-1054 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eduardo López

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Iberian Peninsula ◽

British Museum ◽

First Record ◽

Western Mediterranean ◽

Mediterranean Coast ◽

Geographical Range ◽

Polychaete Species ◽

The Mediterranean

During an investigation devoted to characterize all the Orbiniidae polychaete species present in the Iberian Peninsula, several individuals previously identified as Scoloplos armiger showed to actually belong to Scoloplos haasi, a species to date considered endemic from Israel. The comparison with the holotype deposited in the British Museum of Natural History confirmed the identification. This record of S. haasi is not only a new one for the western Mediterranean but also the first one out of its original locality, extending largely westwards the geographical range of the species.

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