JINZHANGIA, A NEW STAFFELLID FUSULINOIDEA FROM THE MIDDLE PERMIAN DAAOZI FORMATION OF THE BAOSHAN BLOCK, WEST YUNNAN, CHINA

Abstract

Permian foraminifers are reported and illustrated for the first time from the lower part of the Daaozi Formation of the Baoshan Block, West Yunnan, China. The Baoshan Block is a Gondwana-derived continental fragment that is believed to be a key to understanding Gondwana dispersion and Asian accretion during Paleozoic and Mesozoic time. Its Late Paleozoic foraminifers have been poorly documented until now. The Daaozi assemblage is dominated by oval staffellids representing the new genus, Jinzhangia, with J. shengi Ueno, n. sp. as the type species, and several other smaller foraminifers, including Pachyphloia robustaformis Wang, Okimuraites ? cf. O. guvenci (Altiner), and Kamurana ? sp. Although these foraminifers do not provide a precise age determination, associated corals reveal a Murgabian age for the assemblage. Among the oval and fusiform staffellids from Eurasia, only Leella armenica Rozovskaya from the Middle Permian of Transcaucasia should be referable to the new genus Jinzhangia. Thus, Jinzhangia apparently is restricted to Baoshan and Transcaucasia, which are parts of the Cimmerian continent and which was paleogeo-graphically independent of both Gondwanaland and the Cathaysian blocks, such as Indochina and Yangtze, during Permian and Triassic time.