Revision of late Katian (Late Ordovician) heliolitine corals from Northern Kuruktag in northeastern Tarim Basin of China

Abstract

The Katian (Late Ordovician) saw the origin and early evolution of heliolitine tabulate corals; however, the group has not been well depicted owing to the lack of an adequately documented fossil record from this interval. In this paper, we systematically revise heliolitines from the upper Katian Hadabulaktag Formation of northern Kuruktag in northeastern Tarim, Xinjiang, China. We examine previously identified type material and describe new specimens from the type horizon. Our investigation shows that the Tarim heliolitine assemblage includes protoheliolitids Khangailites sinkiangensis, Wormsipora sinkiangensis, and Wormsipora orientalis, the plasmoporellids Plasmoporella subtilis and Plasmoporella maxima, and a proporid Propora squameosa. These taxa compositionally compare with coeval faunas from the Kazakstan terranes, and more distantly with South China and Australia. *Yunong Cui [ yncui@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China; Guangxu Wang [gxwang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, PR China.