Brachiopods Research Articles

Brachiopods from the family Ambocoeliidae George (Order Spiriferida) from the Emsian (Lower Devonian) of northeastern Russia

Brachiopods from the family Ambocoeliidae George from the Emsian (Lower Devonian) of northeastern Russia are described: Bisinocoelia despecta sp. nov.; Yakutospirifer gen. nov. with the type species Y. krivensis sp. nov.; Micospirifer gen. nov. with the type species M. simplex sp. nov.; Kolymospirifer gen. nov. with the type species K. optatus sp. nov. (subfamily Ambocoeliinae); Datnospirifer gen. nov. with the type species D. alius sp. nov.; Khalimospirifer gen. nov. with the type species Kh. microscopicus sp. nov.; Gerospirifer gen. nov. with the type species G. normalis sp. nov., and G. gerensis sp. nov.; Dogdospirifer gen. nov. with the type species D. yolkini sp. nov. (subfamily Rhynchospiriferinae).

Supraordinal brachiopod classification

Three controversial problems of brachiopod supraordinal classification are discussed: the position of brachiopods in the classification of Metazoa, their classification at phylum and class level, and the classification of the articulate brachiopods. The position of brachiopods in the system of Metazoa remains uncertain. There are no strong reasons for changing the traditional division of the phylum Brachiopoda into the classes Inarticulata and Articulata. The class Articulata is divided into the subclasses Orthata, Strophomenata, Spiriferata, and Terebratulata.

New Early Triassic Lingulidae (Brachiopoda) genera and species from South China

Peng, Y. & Shi, G.R., June, 2008. New Early Triassic Lingulidae (Brachiopoda) genera and species from South China. Alcheringa 32, 149–170. ISSN 0311-5518. Two new genera, Sinolingularia gen. nov. and Sinoglottidia gen. nov., together with three new species, Sinolingularia huananensis gen. et sp. nov., Sinolingularia yini gen. et sp. nov. and Sinoglottidia archboldi gen. et sp. nov., are described on the basis of a large collection of well-preserved specimens from several sections straddling the Permian – Triassic boundary in South China.

New Devonian brachiopods from northeastern Russia

Brachiopods from the Devonian of northeastern Russia are described: Eoprokopia gen. nov., with the type species E. aequalis sp. nov. (subfamily Prokopiinae, order Orthida); Davoustia settedabanica sp. nov. and D. verkhojanica sp. nov. (family Anopliidae, order Chonetida); and Alkhovikovia gen. nov. with the type species A. libera sp. nov. and A. importuna sp. nov. and Tikhyspirifer gen. nov. with the type species T. globosus sp. nov. (subfamily Rhynchospiriferinae, order Spiriferida).

Part H, Brachiopoda (Revised), vol. 6, References and Index

Part H, Brachiopoda (Revised), vol. 6, References and Index

Part H, Brachiopoda (Revised), vol. 6, ch. 9, p. 2901–2965

Part H, Brachiopoda (Revised), vol. 6, ch. 9, p. 2901–2965

Part H, Brachiopoda (Revised), vol. 6, ch. 8, p. 2822–2900

Part H, Brachiopoda (Revised), vol. 6, ch. 8, p. 2822–2900

Animal phylogeny

Animal phylogeny

A NEW DAONELLA FROM THE LADINIAN PLATFORM OF THE ESINO LIMESTONE (SOUTHERN ALPS, ITALY)

The bivalve Daonella Mojsisovics, 1874 is very common in the Middle Triassic pelagic facies, whereas the record of this genus from shallow water limestones is rare. In the present paper a new species of Daonella , named D. pseudograbensis , is described from the Esino Limestone, a Ladinian (Middle Triassic) carbonate platform in the central Southern Alps. The species is described from Brembana Valley, where the Esino Limestone is rather rich in bioclastic lenses yielding faunas with bivalves, cephalopods, gastropods, brachiopods, corals and calcareous algae. Daonella pseudograbensis n. sp. is based on very well preserved specimens, which are often articulated and closed, all coming from the same locality. The new species shows a narrow range of intraspecific and ontogenetic morphologic variations. It is easy distinguishable from the other species of the genus for the outline and ornamentation; it therefore differs from D. grabensis Kittl, 1912, the most similar species, for the longer anterior dorsal margin.Pdf

BRACHIOPODS FROM THE UPPER TRIASSIC REEF HABITATS OF THE NORTHERN CALCAREOUS ALPS (DACHSTEIN LIMESTONE, HOCHSCHWAB, AUSTRIA)

Upper Triassic brachiopods from 2 localities in the reef Dachstein Limestone of the SE Hochschwab massif in Styria, Austria are systematically described and illustrated. About 900 variably preserved specimens belong to 28 species, representing thus the most diverse brachiopod fauna known from the North Alpine Dachstein Limestone. This indicates that brachiopods were common inhabitants of reef habitats during the Alpine Norian. Oxycolpella , Sinucosta and Aulacothyropsis are dominant. Seven brachiopod species are known from the Kossen Formation (Rhaetian). Adygella biplicata (Dagys) and Ladinian Hungarispira loretzi (Bittner) are the newcomers in the Nordalpine Dachstein Limestone. In addition to brachiopods, only some fragments of bivalves were found. Conodonts of the species Epigondolella triangularis (Budurov 1972) indicate the Early Norian age.

Frasnian Brachiopoda Fauna From The Late Devonian Gümüşali Formation In The Saimbeyli Region (Adana-Eastern Taurides)

In this study, Frasnian brachiopoda fauna of the Gumuþali formation in the Saimbeyli area (Eastern Taurides) has been identified and described for the first time in Turkey. The measured section, located near Naltaþ village, Gumuþali formation is well exposed and very rich in macrofossils. This macrofossils occur in local accumulations within the limestones and sandstones. The section which represents lower part of the formation is formed by fossiliferous limestones at the basal part, by sandy limestone-shale alternation at the middle part and by sandstones interbedded with thin shales at the top. The sequence was deposited in a shallow marine environment. It contains brachiopods, corals and subordinate bryozoa and crinoidal elements. The detemined brachiopoda assemblage includes Douvillina dutertrei (Murchison), Cyphoterorhynchus arpaensis (Abramian), Desquamatia sp., Cyrtospirifer bisinus (Lehon), Cyrtospirifer schelonicus Nalivkin, Cyrtospirifer sp., Apousiella bouchardi (Murchison), Spinatrypina chitralensis (Reed), Uchtospirifer multiplicatus Brice. This assemblage can be correlated with those from the Frasnian of Iran, Afghanistan and Western Europe.

Discussion of the Early Devonian rhynchonellid brachiopod genus Borealirhynchia Su, 1976

The Early Devonian brachiopod genus Borealirhynchia was established by Su, 1976. Phylum Brachiopoda (Cambrian to Devonian). In: Paleontological Atlas of North China, Inner Mongolia Volume 1. Geological Publishing House Beijing, pp. 155–227 (in Chinese). It has not been previously described in detail, nor have transverse serial sections of the internal features of Borealirhynchia delerensis, the type species, been published. In this paper Borealirhynchia, along with a few species previously assigned to it, is analysed and discussed. Detailed transverse serial sections of the internal features of B.? lata Su, 1976, are provided, based on well-preserved specimens collected from the Lower Devonian strata of Dong Ujimqin Qi, northeastern Inner Mongolia. Borealirhynchia? gigantea Su, 1976 and Latonotoechia multicosta Su, 1976 are considered to be synonyms of B.? lata Su with the same external and internal characters present in all three species. Some Lower Devonian strata, in which Borealirhynchia was found and reported, from Dong Ujimqin Qi, northeastern Inner Mongolia, are fully described.

Dynamic response of Permian brachiopod communities to long-term environmental change.

The fossil record preserves numerous natural experiments that can shed light on the response of ecological communities to environmental change. However, directly observing the community dynamics of extinct organisms is not possible. As an alternative, neutral ecological models suggest that species abundance distributions reflect dynamical processes like migration, competition, recruitment, and extinction. Live-dead comparisons suggest that such distributions can be faithfully preserved in the rock record. Here we use a maximum-likelihood approach to show that brachiopod (lamp shell) abundance distributions from four temporally distinct ecological landscapes from the Glass Mountains, Texas (of the Permian period), exhibit significant differences. Further, all four are better fitted by zero-sum multinomial distributions, characteristic of Hubbell's neutral model, than by log-normal distributions, as predicted by the traditional ecological null hypothesis. Using the neutral model as a guide, we suggest that sea level fluctuations spanning about 10 Myr altered the degrees of isolation and exchange among local communities within these ecological landscapes. Neither these long-term environmental changes nor higher-frequency sea level fluctuations resulted in wholesale extinction or major innovation within evolutionary lineages.

ENVIRONMENTS AND FAUNAL PATTERNS IN THE KACHCHH RIFT BASIN, WESTERN INDIA, DURING THE JURASSIC

Marine Jurassic sediments (Bajocian-Tithonian) of the Kachchh Basin were deposited in a ramp setting. Except during the Middle and Late Bathonian, when a carbonate regime became established, the fill of the basin consists predominantly of siliciclastics. The sediments represent environments that range from coastal plains (rivers and associated flood plains with caliche nodules), deltas, brackish water lagoons, nearshore sand and iron-oolite bars of the inner ramp, generally situated above fair-weather wave-base, to the middle ramp influenced by storm-waves and by storm-generated currents, and finally to the outer ramp which is characterised by low energy, fine-grained sediments. Changes in relative sea level produced a cyclic sedimentation pattern. The rich benthic fauna of macroinvertebrates is dominated by bivalves, followed by brachiopods, gastropods, corals, serpulids, and sponges. The analysis of 370 statistical samples and more than 27, 000 specimens produced more than 40 benthic associations and assemblages. They show a relationship to several environmental parameters, two of which, salinity and climate, are briefly discussed. The spatial distribution of the facies and biota is outlined for two time slices, the Bathonian and the Callovian-Oxfordian, respectively.

Victims of the Early Toarcian anoxic event: the radiation and extinction of Jurassic Koninckinidae (Brachiopoda)

The significant mass extinction attributed to the Early Toarcian anoxic event had a severe impact on the phylum Brachiopoda. Beyond a serious decrease of species diversity, the extinction of the orders Spiriferidina and Athyridida is connected with this episode. The order Athyridida was represented by the family Koninckinidae in the Early Jurassic. The stratigraphical and geographical distribution of the three Early Jurassic koninckinid genera (Koninckella, Koninckodonta, Amphiclinodonta) shows a definite radiative pattern. The number of their nominal species increased from 2 to 17 from the Sinemurian to Early Toarcian; in the same time interval, their area increased from the Alpine region to the whole Mediterranean and the NW-European domains. This radiative evolution can be explained as the result of different factors: (1) morphological adaptation to muddy bottoms, (2) fundamental changes in the current pattern in the Tethys/Laurasian Seaway, and, possibly, (3) utilization of methane-based chemosynthesis as alternative food source. The radiation of koninckinids, leading from the cryptic habitats of the Tethyan rocky floors to the extensive muddy bottoms of the open European shelves, was abruptly terminated by the anoxic event in the Early Toarcian Falciferum Zone. The main causes of the extinction might be: (1) the excessive warming of Tethyan deep waters by thermohaline circulation, (2) the anoxic event, which was not survived by the spire-bearers, handicapped by their stiff, calcareous spiralia. Brachiopoda, Early Jurassic, Europe, extinction, Koninckinidae, radiation, Tethys.

Evaluating internal versus external characters: Phylogenetic analyses of the Echinoconchidae, Buxtoniinae, and Juresaniinae (phylum Brachiopoda)

Evolutionary relationships between the Echinoconchidae, Productidae, Buxtoniinae, and Juresaniinae (Phylum Brachiopoda, Order Productida) have been the subject of debate for the better part of a century. The original (Muir-Wood and Williams, 1965) and revised (Brunton et al., 2000) Brachiopoda volumes of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology use markedly different classifications and emphasize different characters. The 1965 Treatise classification for these taxa primarily was based on internal features, especially the cardinal process; the revised Treatise (2000) relied on external ornament and shell shape. Multiple phylogenetic analyses (global parsimony, stratocladistics, nearest-neighbor) of 14 genera, representing all of the relevant subfamilies and outgroups, are in strong agreement that 1) the subfamily Buxtoniinae belongs in the family Echinoconchidae, not to the Productidae; 2) the subfamily Juresaniinae is more closely related to the Echinoconchinae than to the Buxtoniinae; and 3) that internal characters, such as a shafted cardinal process and anterio-medial position of the brachial valve adductor field, provide the best phylogenetic signal, and are synapomorphic for the Echinoconchidae. Jackknifing and Bremer Support corroborate these results.

Classification into a Novel Mollu-Series of Neutral Glycosphingolipids from the Lamp Shell, Lingula unguis.

Seven neutral glycosphingolipids were isolated and purified from the lamp shell, Lingula unguis by successive column chromatography on ion exchange Sephadex (QAE-Sephadex), magnesium silicate (Florisil) and silicic acid (Iatrobeads). Their chemical structures were characterized as Glcβ1-1ceramide (CMS1, CMS2 and CMS3), Manβ1-4Glcβ1-1ceramide (MlOse2Cer, CDS), Manα1-3Manβ1-4Glcβ1-1ceramide (MlOse3Cer, CTS), GlcNAcβ1-2Manα1-3Manβ1-4Glcβ1-1ceramide (MlOse4Cer, CQS) and GlcNAcβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-2Manα1-3Manβ1-4Glcβ1-1ceramide (IV4βGlcNAc-MlOse4Cer, CPS) by compositional analysis, methylation analysis, exoglycosidase cleavage, gas-liquid chromatography, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Aliphatic constituents of CDS, CTS, CQS and CPS were virtually the same, with C16:0 and C18:0, and their 2-hydroxy homologues as the fatty acids, and octadecasphinga-4,8,10-trienine as the sole sphingoid. However, the ceramide compositions of CMS1, CMS2 and CMS3 differed from those of the other four glycolipids. The fatty acid composition of CMS1 consisted completely of C16:0, C17:0 and C18:0 acids, but both CMS2 and CMS3 contained instead of their 2-hydroxy homologues. The sphingoid components of CMS1 and CMS2 were octadecasphinga-4-enine and octadecasphinga-4,8,10-trienine, but that of CMS3 was entirely trihydroxysphingoid, 4-hydroxyoctadecasphiganine.

EVALUATING INTERNAL VERSUS EXTERNAL CHARACTERS: PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSES OF THE ECHINOCONCHIDAE, BUXTONIINAE, AND JURESANIINAE (PHYLUM BRACHIOPODA)

Evolutionary relationships between the Echinoconchidae, Productidae, Buxtoniinae, and Juresaniinae (Phylum Brachiopoda, Order Productida) have been the subject of debate for the better part of a century. The original (Muir-Wood and Williams, 1965) and revised (Brunton et al., 2000) Brachiopoda volumes of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology use markedly different classifications and emphasize different characters. The 1965 Treatise classification for these taxa primarily was based on internal features, especially the cardinal process; the revised Treatise (2000) relied on external ornament and shell shape. Multiple phylogenetic analyses (global parsimony, stratocladistics, nearest-neighbor) of 14 genera, representing all of the relevant subfamilies and outgroups, are in strong agreement that 1) the subfamily Buxtoniinae belongs in the family Echinoconchidae, not to the Productidae; 2) the subfamily Juresaniinae is more closely related to the Echinoconchinae than to the Buxtoniinae; and 3) that internal characters, such as a shafted cardinal process and anterio-medial position of the brachial valve adductor field, provide the best phylogenetic signal, and are synapomorphic for the Echinoconchidae. Jackknifing and Bremer Support corroborate these results.

PERMIAN BRACHIOPODS FROM KARAKORUM (PAKISTAN) PART. 3.

Late Wordian (Guadalupian) brachiopods from Member 2 of the Panjshah Formation in the Karakorum (N Pakistan) are described. The brachiopod assemblage, dated by the associated fusulinids and conodonts, consists of 29 genera (3 of which are questionable and 1 unidentifiable) of the orders Productida, Orthida, Rhynchonellida, Athyridida, Spiriferida and Terebratulida. Hunzininae, a new subfamily of the Spiriferellidae is proposed; it includes Darbandia n. gen., with type species D. vagabunda n. sp. and Elivina chapursani n. sp. A third new species is assigned to the genus Anchorhynchia of the family Wellerellidae : A. cimmerica n. sp. A quantitative biostratigraphic analysis demonstrates two major faunal changes in the Elivina chapursani - Chapursania tatianae Assemblage Zone of the upper part of Member 2, which are not strictly linked to lithological changes. This biozone is correlated with the brachiopod faunas of the Gnishik Formation of Armenia and those of the basal Takhtabulak Formation of SE Pamir. The faunal elements of the Elivina chapursani - Chapursania tatianae Assemblage Zone are an admixture of wide-ranging, Tethyan (particularly abundant), Gondwanan and endemic (Cimmerian) genera, representing a transitional fauna and a biostratigraphic tool for intercontinental correlation, which are particularly problematic in this time interval. The Panjshah transitional fauna demonstrates the persistence of the Transhimalayan Province of the Cimmerian Region into the late Guadalupian, which originated at the end of the Cisuralian and occupied Armenia, Central Afghanistan, Karakorum and SE Pamir. It provides also some insights into the biodiversity pattern before the mass extinction at the end of the Guadalupian, and suggests that this event was as rapid as the end- Permian mass extinction, at least in Central Asia.

Biomineralization in Brachiopod Shells

Biominerals are produced in all five kingdoms. Calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate are the most abundant biominerals performing many functions including protection and skeletal support. The phylum Brachiopoda is divided into three subphyla: Linguliformea, Craniiformea, and Rhynchonelliformea (Williams et al., 1996). The Linguliformea possess inarticulated phosphatic valves. Articulation is also lacking in the calcitic valves of the Craniiformea while the calcitic valves of the Rhynchonelliformea are articulated. The paired valves of the brachiopod shell are one of the earliest examples of biomineralization. The existence of different mineral regimes and shell ultrastructures within the phylum makes the brachiopods ideal candidates for the study of biomineralization. The formation of brachiopod valves is an example of organic controlled mineralization, a term introduced by Lowenstam (1981) to describe biomineralization which is under genetic control via specific organic material controlling the precipitation and formation of the biomineral. In organically induced biomineralization (Lowenstam, 1981), organic molecules provide a nucleating surface on which mineral precipitates. Such precipitation continues as long as the solution is saturated with respect to the mineral ions. Stromatolite formation is an example of organically induced biomineralization. In brachiopod shell formation, organic molecules are not solely involved in nucleation. By binding to specific crystal faces, organic molecules inhibit growth along certain crystal axes and enhance growth in other directions, influencing the growth and formation of organically controlled biominerals. Finally, organic molecules inhibit biomineral growth. Thus, a suite of organic molecules is involved in brachiopod shell formation, their spatial and temporal presentation resulting in the formation of species-specific valves.