Devonian–Carboniferous brachiopod zonation in the Tarim Basin, northwest China: implications for biostratigraphy and biogeography

Abstract

AbstractFourteen brachiopod zones are recognized in the Upper Devonian and Carboniferous successions of the Tarim Basin, northwest China. Of these, the Trifidorostellum longhuiense Zone is established from the Famennian, the Eochoristites neipentaiensis Zone in the lower Tournaisian, the Chuiella aitegouensis Zone from the upper Tournaisian to lowest Viséan; the Brochocarina kunlunensis, Rugosochonetes hardrensis, Buxtonia pseudoscabricula, Vitiliproductus groberi, and Datangia weiningensis zones from the Viséan, the Gigantoproductus edelburgensis Zone from the Serpukhovian age, both Productus productus and Eomarginifera lata zones from the Bashkirian, both Choristites abnormalis and Purdonella artuxensis zones from the Moscovian, and the Linoproductus cora Zone from the Kasimovian–Gzhelian. The faunal characteristics and basin‐wide distributions of these zones are discussed. Close comparisons of the Tarim brachiopod zones with faunas from other regions of China (South China, North China, Tienshan–Junggar, and Tibet), Thailand, Pakistan (Karakorum), Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan), and the Urals–Russian Platform suggest that the Tarim faunas were biogeographically closely related to the South Chinese faunas in the late Famennian–Tournaisian and appear to be of a mixture between South Chinese and Central Asian–Uralian faunas, with elements from West Europe, North America, Siberia, and Gondwanaland in the Viséan‐Serpukhovian. The Tarim brachiopods demonstrate stronger links with faunas of the Urals–Russian Platform and Central Asia and, to a lesser extent, with the South Chinese faunas throughout the Bashkirian to Gzhelian. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.