Heliolitine tabulate corals from Late Ordovician and possibly early Silurian allochthonous limestones in the Broken River Province, Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Dixon, O.A. & Jell, J.S., iFirst article. Heliolitine tabulate corals from Late Ordovician and possibly early Silurian allochthonous limestones in the Broken River Province, Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa, 1–30. ISSN 0311-5518. Coral faunas of Late Ordovician (Ashgill) and possibly early Silurian age are present in allochthonous limestone blocks incorporated in debris flow deposits in the Broken River Province of north Queensland. The limestones occur in the Carriers Well Formation and Crooked Creek Conglomerate, which now lie within structurally deformed fault slices, and are evidence of the existence of a former carbonate platform of this age situated to the west. The fauna from the Carriers Well Formation includes 15 taxa belonging to the heliolitine coral families Heliolitidae, Pseudoplasmoporidae, Plasmoporidae, Plasmoporellidae and Sibiriolitidae. New taxa present are Wairunalites greeni gen. et sp. nov. and Plasmoporella marginata sp. nov. The fauna includes other species belonging to Heliolites, Plasmoporella and Sibiriolites in common with Late Ordovician faunas of New South Wales, central Asia and northern China. A limestone block in the Crooked Creek Conglomerate contains a few non-diagnostic heliolitine corals, together with rugosan, favositine and halysitine corals similar to those in the blocks of the Carriers Well Formation, but it also contains several alveolitine tabulates suggesting a possible early Silurian age.