Kungurian (Cisuralian/Early Permian) brachiopods from the Snapper Point Formation, southern Sydney Basin, southeastern Australia

Abstract

Elements of a high-latitude (∼60–70°S) and low-diversity early Kungurian (Cisuralian/Early Permian) brachiopod fauna have been sporadically reported from the sandstone-dominated Snapper Point Formation (SPF) in the southern Sydney Basin of southeastern Australia for more than a half-century, but a detailed description of this fauna is not yet available. In this paper we describe 12 brachiopod species and an indeterminate ingelarellid from the SPF, including one new species (Tasmanospirifer jervisbayensis sp. nov. Waterhouse & Lee). Though this brachiopod fauna is evidently associated with an interglacial stratigraphic interval, its taxonomic characteristics overall resemble those from stratigraphically bounding glacial intervals. This association is interpreted to indicate persistence and the strong endemic nature of the Permian Eastern Australian biogeographic province in high-latitude eastern Gondwana, regardless of glacial/interglacial climate states during the Cisuralian. Biostratigraphically, the SPF brachiopod fauna is divisible into two distinctive stratigraphic assemblages: the Notospirifer cf. triplicata–Simplicisulcus sp. Assemblage in the lower part of the formation and the Johndearia brevis–Sulciplica transversa Assemblage in the upper part, each distinguished by a set of unique species. Sangmin Lee [sangminlee76@gmail.com] and G. R. Shi [guang@uow.edu.au] School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong Faculty of Science Medicine and Health, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia Bruce Runnegar [runnegar@ucla.edu] Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA J. B. Waterhouse [permia@xtra.co.nz] Oamaru, Oamaru, New Zealand.