Silicified Upper Ordovician trilobites from Pai‐Khoi, Arctic Russia

Abstract

Abstract: A collection of silicified trilobites extracted from samples obtained by F. Nansen from the Upper Ordovician of Khabarovo, Pai Khoi, Russian Arctic is dominated by two new species of the proetide Lasarchopyge, a genus known hitherto only from the Argentine Precordillera. Comparison of Lasarchopyge with Scharyia reveals a range of common characters that support inclusion of both genera in the same family. The rest of the fauna comprises a metagnostid (Trinodus elspethi), an asaphid (Isotelus sp.), two remopleuridids (Remopleurides cf. caelatus and R. sp. nov. A), an aulacopleurid (Harpidella triloba), a lichid and an odontopleurid (Apianurus cf. barbatus), the last two being represented by very fragmentary material. T. elspethi, H. triloba, R. cf. caelatus and A. cf. barbatus are common to or closely resemble taxa from the Edinburg Formation, Virginia. Closely related taxa are present also in the Esbataottine Formation, NW Territories, Canada, and in the Albany Group, Girvan district, Scotland. All of these occurrences are of early Caradoc (Sandbian) age, and most lay at palaeolatitudes of 20°–30° south; all are interpreted as having been deposited on the outer shelf, which is consistent with their distribution.