A new early Silurian brachiopod genus, Thulatrypa, from Norway and South China, and its palaeobiogeographical significance

Abstract

Huang, B., Baarli, B.G., Zhan, R.B. & Rong, J.Y., October 2015. A new early Silurian brachiopod genus, Thulatrypa, from Norway and South China, and its palaeobiogeographical significance. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.The smooth atrypoid brachiopod Thulatrypa gen. nov. incorporates two species, a younger (T. gregaria) from Norway, and an older (T. orientalis) from South China, which collectively span the middle Rhuddanian through Aeronian. In Baltica, the genus thrived just below the storm wave base in a tropical BA4 setting extending slightly into BA3 and BA5 respectively, whereas in South China, its representative occurs in a much shallower assemblage (BA2–3). Their palaeobiogeographical implications are carefully investigated. This study supports the arguments that Thulatrypa may have originated in South China in the middle Rhuddanian and extended its range to eastern Baltica in the late Rhuddanian. Larvae may have drifted along a channel from the east to the southwest of Baltica, which supports the reconstructions of palaeocurrents in the early Silurian in previous palaeogeographical studies.Bing Huang [bhuang@nigpas.ac.cn], Ren-bin Zhan [rbzhan@nigpas.ac.cn] and Jia-yu Rong [jyrong@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, PR China; B. Gudveig Baarli [gudveig.baarli@williams.edu], Department of Geosciences, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA.