Telephinaand Other Trilobites from the Pratt Ferry Beds, Ordovician of Alabama, U.S.A.
The Pratt Ferry beds are a three meter thick bioclastic carbonate unit containing thePygodus serrus–P. anserinusconodont zone boundary and lying just below theNemagraptus gracilisgraptolite zone at a single locality in Alabama.TelephinaMarek at Pratt Ferry and other eastern North American localities is represented by at least six species. These are judged widespread and in part conspecific with Scandinavian or Asian forms of similar age. Most of the fifteen Appalachian telephinid species proposed by Ulrich (1930) are reviewed and some synonymized.BevanopsisCooper is present, extending its stratigraphic range viaB. buttsi(Cooper). The original description ofCeraurinella buttsiCooper is augmented. Other recorded but poorly represented genera includeAmpyxina,Arthrorhachis,Calyptaulax,Hibbertia,Lonchodomas,Mesotaphraspis,Porterfieldia, andSphaerexochus. The entire faunule represents a mixture of ‘inshore’ and ‘offshore’ or planktonic faunal elements rarely seen elsewhere in the latest Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) of eastern North America.