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September 1962 - present
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Publications (193)
Following the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction event, brachiopod faunas were in a phase of recovery during the late Rhuddanian (early Silurian), documented by a drastic turnover of Ordovician-type to Silurian-type faunas. In this study, we present a recovery brachiopod fauna, from the Niuchang Formation (late Rhuddanian-based graptolite zonation) at...
A stratigraphic succession across the Ordovician-Silurian boundary is discovered in the northwestern margin of the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, NW China, and is named Xikeer Bed, which ranges from uppermost Hirnantian (Upper Ordovician) to lowermost Rhuddanian (Llandovery, Silurian). The holostratotype of the Xikeer Bed is located at the Xikeer Service-a...
‘Strophodontoid’ brachiopods represented the majority of strophomenide brachiopods in the Silurian and Devonian periods. They are characterized by denticles developed along the hinge line. The evolution of denticles correlated with the disappearance of dental plates and teeth and were already present when the clade originated in the Late Ordovician...
Atrypoidea is a Silurian smooth atrypide with a worldwide distribution and high species-level diversity especially during Ludlow to Prídolí. In this study, the occurrences of 67 species, 14 subspecies, and 23 forma, cf., aff., or var. species are summarized. Among them, Atrypoidea recta from Aeronian of Siberia is the earliest known occurrence of t...
After the Late Ordovician mass extinction, brachiopods recovered and re-radiated during the Aeronian age of the early Silurian. However, a drastic turnover of Ordovician-type to Silurian-type faunas took place. In South China, Aeronian brachiopod faunas are rarely reported and typically of low diversity. Here, we describe an endemic brachiopod faun...
Linguliform brachiopods are a minor but distinctive component of the Palaeozoic Evolutionary Fauna. However, there is no formal research on Katian (Late Ordovician) linguliform microbrachiopods in South China. Fossils from the ‘Pagoda’, ‘Linhsiang’ and Daduhe formations, Wanhe section of Yunnan Province, South China, provide a unique opportunity to...
The temporal and spatial distribution of Hirnantian brachiopod faunas are reviewed based on a new, comprehensive dataset from over 20 palaeoplates and terranes, a revised correlation scheme for Hirnantian strata and numerical methods including network analysis. There were two successive evolutionary faunas: 1. the widespread and diachronous Hirnant...
The end Ordovician mass extinction (EOME) was the second most severe biotic crisis in Phanerozoic, and has been widely linked to a major glaciation. However, robust geochronology of this interval is still lacking. Here we present four successive high-precision zircon U–Pb dates by isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) for...
The brachiopods collected from the Kuanyinchiao Beds (Hirnantian, uppermost Ordovician) in Meitan and Zunyi counties, northern Guizhou, include 13 species and one undetermined taxon, dominated by Hirnantia sagittifera (M'Coy, 1851) (which accounts for over one-third of the specimens), together with common Eostropheodonta hirnantensis (M'Coy, 1851)....
A large brachiopod fauna collected through the upper Wanyaoshu Formation (middle Hirnantian), West Yunnan, China displays, for the first time, a vertical transition within the Hirnantia fauna. The inner to mid‐shelf Fardenia–Hirnantia association segues into the deeper water Aegiromena–Anisopleurella association during the Metabolograptus persculpt...
Cocks, L.R.M. & Jiayu, R. 5 July 2019. A global analysis of distribution and endemism within Late Llandovery (Telychian) brachiopods. Alcheringa 43, 406–422. ISSN 0311–5518
The genera of brachiopods of early Silurian (late Llandovery: Telychian) age have been critically reviewed and are listed from the major continental areas: South China, Avalonia...
A new, latest Ordovician brachiopod fauna is systematically described from the Hwe Mawng Purple Shale Member (Hirnantian) of the Naungkangyi Group of the Pa-thin area, Mandalay Region, Myanmar, revealing one of the most diverse representatives of the typical Hirnantia Fauna. Rhynchonelliformean, craniiformean and linguliformean brachiopods studied...
Following the end Ordovician mass extinction, brachiopod faunas were commonly of low diversity, generally rare in abundance, and restricted to shallow‐water environments in many places. The Cathaysiorthis fauna, first described from South East China, is the most diverse brachiopod fauna in the world succeeding the Hirnantia fauna, and has modified...
A new, high-diversity, latest Ordovician brachiopod fauna of nearly 800 brachiopod specimens was collected from the Wanyaoshu Formation (Hirnantian) in the Shaodihe section, Mangshi City, western Yunnan, Southwest China. Altogether 22 genera and two undetermined taxa were identified; dominant are Aegiromena, Anisopleurella, Fardenia, Dalmanella, Hi...
Hirnantian costate craniides are rare in the world; many have only been defined using open taxonomic nomenclature and assigned to the genera Acanthocrania and Philhedra. New material from South China and Myanmar allows establishment of a new genus, Xenocrania, including its type species Palaeocyclus? haimei Reed from the Hirnantia fauna in northern...
A series of major geological and biological events which altered the evolutionary processes of whole biosphere occurred during the earth history. Establishing a high-resolution stratigraphic framework and timescale is essential to understand their tempo and causes. High-resolution biostratigraphy remains the most useful approach and forms the basis...
Silurian is a period with the shortest duration in Phanerozoic except for the Neogene and Quaternary. It represents an important and unique interval when the biotic diversity recovered quickly after the end-Ordovician mass extinction, different paleoplates or terranes conjoined, big oceans disappeared or narrowed, climate and sea level changed freq...
The Shamaoshan section in Yichang, Hubei, South China is a classical geological section of Silurian in China. The Shamao Formation in the upper part of this section has been considered Llandovery in age for nearly 30 years. This paper reports tubular trace fossils and cuticle-like plant fossils from Member four of the Shamao Formation as originally...
Details of the onset of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) remain unclear, and an emerging picture indicates that this process may have been linked to oceanic oxygenation. To address this question, we carried out a case study involving facies analysis and sea-level reconstruction on the Early to earliest-Middle Ordovician marine r...
It is the first time to document the trilobite Mucronaspis (Songxites) wuningensis and the brachiopod Paromalomena-Aegiromenella Assemblage from the Xinkailing Bed (Hirnantian, uppermost Ordovician) in Taoyuan and Cili counties, northwestern Hunan Province. Synecological analysis shows that this is a deep water shelly fauna of South China during th...
Marine red beds (MRBs) occur in many locations in the world during the Telychian Stage but it is unclear how they were related with the highly dynamic Silurian Earth system. To address this question, we conducted a case study involving geochronology, palaeogeographic reconstruction, facies analysis and sea-level history of the middle Telychian MRBs...
Richly fossiliferous Hirnantian shelly strata of near-shore facies in northern Guizhou, South China, known as the Kuanyinchiao Formation, superbly record glacioeustatic sea-level fluctuations and benthic faunal turnover. Recent studies of the temporal and spatial distribution of these carbonates and shelly fossils permit a critical stratigraphic re...
Network and frequency distribution analyses of global brachiopod occurrences in the earliest Silurian (Rhuddanian-Aeronian) revealed that brachiopod recovery from the end-Ordovician mass extinction during the early-late Rhuddanian was represented mainly by the reestablishment of Late Ordovician cosmopolitan holdover taxa. Brachiopods nearly doubled...
在湖北省建始县北部细沙坝剖面志留系最上部发现腕足动物及几丁类化石。腕足动物组合以华美瓦尔达贝(Valdaria lauta)为典型分子,属于秀山动物群第二组合带;同时根据几丁类的组合带延限,综合分析确定其时代为特列奇中期,相当于秀山组上段的中部。鉴于与典型纱帽组在岩性、时代的明显差别,鄂西地区的来凤、咸丰、鹤峰、宣恩、恩施、建始、巴东等地的这套以往称作纱帽组的地层改称为秀山组为宜。建始细沙坝与桐梓韩家店、石阡雷家屯、秀山溶溪、宣恩高罗、宜昌大中坝等五地志留系对比说明,上扬子区各地志留系兰多维列统的顶界是参差不齐的,其中秀山的相关地层顶界最高,桐梓和宜昌的最低。上述情况反映当时海域沉积受广西运动的直接影响,导致地壳上升,从而海水退尽,岩层差异剥蚀强烈,此系华夏古陆向西北方向显著扩张的结果。
A new homogeneous catalog of photographic RGU star count and color data
in seven high-galactic latitude fields has been used to determine the
best-fitting structural parameter values from a large number of
multi-component population models of the Galaxy. We confirm the presence
of a prominent thick disk component coexisting with a canonical thin
di...
Classification of extinction events and their severity is generally based on taxonomic counts. The ecological impacts of such events have been categorized and prioritized but rarely tested with empirical data. The ecology of the end Ordovician extinction and subsequent biotic recovery is tracked through abundant and diverse brachiopod faunas in Sou...
The distribution pattern of early Telychian (turriculatus-crispus graptolite biozone) red beds in the Eastern Yangtze Platform of South China is reconstructed based on regional geologic data. The red beds are developed in three areas, which are separated by regions without red deposition. The distribution pattern indicates that the Cathaysian Oldla...
The phylogeographical evolution and the consequent changing distribution and diversity of rhynchonelliform brachiopods through the Ordovician are linked to the dynamic palaeogeography of the period. The Early Ordovician (Tremadocian and Floian) is characterized by globally low-diversity faunas with local biodiversity epicentres, notably on the Sout...
Huang, B., Baarli, B.G., Zhan, R.B. & Rong, J.Y., XX.XXXX.2016. A new early Silurian brachiopod genus, Thulatrypa, from Norway and South China, and its palaeobiogeographical significance. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518. The smooth atrypoid brachiopod Thulatrypa gen. nov. incorporates two species, a younger (T. gregaria) from Norway, and an...
Of the 'big five' mass extinction events in the Earth’s history [1], the end-Permian extinction was the largest. Over the past thirty years, the end-Permian extinction has attracted a lot of attention with many causes being suggested for the mass extinction. Suggestions have included asteroid impact, Siberia volcanism eruption, global warming, ocea...
The origin and pigmentation of red beds have long been investigated, but mainly on continental settings and carbonate facies (including deep marine red beds). This paper focuses on the shallow marine clastic red beds developed in South China during the Silurian. Based on the sedimentological and geochemical analyses on red layers, green layers and...
Silurian brachiopods of Middle Llandovery (Aeronian) ages are reviewed, and 215 genera are identified here, compared with 109 in the preceding Early Llandovery (Rhuddanian), indicating a recovery-radiation interval after the end-Ordovician mass extinction. The chief regions in which they are found are the continents of South China, Avalonia-Baltica...
The phylogeographical evolution and the consequent changing distribution and diversity of rhynchonelliform brachiopods through the Ordovician are linked to the dynamic palaeogeography of the period. The Early Ordovician (Tremadocian and Floian) is characterized by globally low-diversity faunas with local biodiversity epicentres, notably on the Sout...
The upper Daguanshan Formation (middle Expansograptus hirundo graptolite biozone, Dapingian, early Middle Ordovician) of the Shuanghe area, Changning County, southern Sichuan Province, contains three new genera and species of strophomenoids: Ochyromena plana, Shuangheella elongata, and Primotimena globula, which are attributed to the Strophomenidae...
Flash point, an important physical property of the flammable liquids, is one of the main indicators to evaluate the fire hazard. In this article, a series of field measurement at different altitudes were carried out by using a portable flash point-measuring apparatus. The six tested altitudes are 3650, 3950, 4250, 4500, and 4750 m in Tibet plateau...
The brachiopod genus Dicoelosia is generally considered a typical deep-water taxon. New data suggest that some species of the genus may have invaded relatively shallow-water habitats during its geological history. However, there is scant evidence for its invasion of shallow-water environments after the terminal Ordovician mass extinction. Dicoelosi...
Previous research on a small continental island called Bater Island in south-central Inner Mongolia focused on palaeogeographic relationships in the context of the North China Block, and on the prevailing pattern of atmospheric and oceanic circulation interpreted from Ludlow (upper Silurian) strata surrounding an Ordovician diorite inlier. Prelimi...
A Foliomena fauna is reported for the first time from the Tarim paleoplate, and stratigraphically from the Yinpingshan Formation (upper Katian, Upper Ordovician) of Querqueke, Kuruktag region, northeastern Tarim, southern Xinjiang, Northwest China. The fauna includes seven species of brachiopods, amongst which three are new and four indeterminate:...
Late Hirnantian and early Rhuddanian shelly faunas dominated by brachiopods are well developed in the clastic facies succeeding the cool and deep-water, very-lowdiversity Hirnantia fauna in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, south-east China; elsewhere in the world, during this interval, brachiopod assemblages are generally rare. The Cathaysiorthis br...
Recent field studies on Upper Silurian stratigraphy and paleontology in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (for short Inner Mongalia) near Bater Obo (=Bateaobao) resulted in the discovery of a small continental island with fossil invertebrates preserved as encrusters (stromatoporoids and corals) attached directly to a rocky shore surface and buri...
Marine red beds occur frequently in China through geological time. Despite their complex environments, the red beds are found in three depositional settings: 1) oceanic, deep water, as in the Upper Cretaceous of southern Tibet; 2) outer shelf, deeper water, as in the Lower-Middle Ordovician of South China; and 3) inner shelf, shallow water, as in t...
Extinction events usually disrupt palaeobiogeographical patterns, but there have been few detailed studies of the Early Silurian survival–recovery period after the Late Ordovician mass extinction. This paper summarizes and revises published information on the recovery of Early and Late Rhuddanian brachiopod faunas. The global dataset consists of 13...
A diverse brachiopod fauna from a relatively deep water carbonate facies of the Upper Ordovician Beiguoshan Formation (uppermost Caradoc – lower Ashgill, middle Katian) is characterized by small shells and contains the oldest known Dicoelosia and Epitomyonia, two diagnostic taxa of deep water brachiopod palaeocommunities during the Late Ordovician...
The Precambrian Lorrain Quartzite is exposed on Manitoulin, Great Cloche, and Birch islands in Lake Huron off the mainland of Ontario. Metamorphism created a massive unit, which later formed a resistant angular unconformity overlain by a succession of strata deposited from Middle to Late Ordovician times. At the start of Ordovician sedimentation, t...
The Ordovician-Silurian strophomenid brachiopod genera Katastrophomena and Strophomena have been assigned to the subfamilies Furcitellinae and Strophomeninae respectively, but these genera are so similar that there exist different opinions on their taxonomic assignments. In order to differentiate these two genera statistically, thirty one species a...
The Late Precambrian through Silurian tectonic evolution of east-central South China is modeled in terms of a history of rift, drift, and collision during Late Proterozoic, Sinian, and Late Ordovician-Early Silurian times, respectively. We review the regional stratigraphie development of this area, focusing particularly on north-central Hunan provi...
The brachiopod fauna of the upper Cambrian (upper Furongian) Guole Formation, northwestern Jingxi County, southwestern Guangxi Province, southern China, comprises six genera and seven species, including one new genus, three new species and two indeterminate species (Obolidae gen. et sp. indet, Acrotretidae gen. et sp. indet., Billingsella guangxien...
In the immediate aftermath of global extinctions, organisms were normally much smaller than those prior to these events. This ‘Lilliput Effect’ can be subdivided into two types: 1) a specific type, following the original definition of the effect which targets species-level taxa associated with inhospitable environments, and 2) a more general type,...
Located northwest of the Jiangshan-Shaoxing Fault Zone, western and northwestern Zhejiang and northeastern Jiangxi provinces
experienced major changes in bio- and litho-facies and paleogeography through the Ordovician-Silurian transition (late Katian,
Hirnantian, and early Rhuddanian), as manifested by stratigraphic, paleontologic and synecologic r...
Discoveries are a driving force for progress in palaeontology. Palaeontology as a discipline of scientific inquiry has gained many fresh insights into the history of life, from the discoveries of many new fossils in China in the last 20 years, and from the new ideas derived from these fossils. This special issue of Proceedings of Royal Society B en...
The only published δ13C data from the Ordovician of China are from the Lower and Upper Ordovician, and only the latter records include a significant excursion, namely the Hirnantian excursion (HICE). Our recent chemostratigraphic work on the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian–Katian) Pagoda and Yanwashan formations at several localities on the Yangtze Plat...
The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Silurian System was defined in 1985. Since that time, a number of researchers have suggested that this section has serious deficiencies for use as a GSSP As a result, in 2000, the Subcommission on Silurian Stratigraphy (SSS) proposed undertaking a formal restudy of this GSSR, which...
Late Ordovician strophomenide brachiopods (superfamilies Strophomenoidea and Plectambonitoidea) from the upper Changwu Formation (mid Ashgill, late Katian) of Jianglütang, Chun’an County, western Zhejiang Province, consist of ten genera and 12 species. Five new species of three new genera are recognized: Chunanomena triporcata, Chunanomena sembelli...
A moderately diverse brachiopod and trilobite assemblage, the Leangella–Dalmanitina (Songxites) Assemblage, occurs in the upper Yankou Formation (Hirnantian, probably equivalent to the Normalograptus persculptus Biozone) at Shizi Hill, Yuhang, west of Hangzhou, northern Zhejiang, E China. The brachiopods are rare, characterised by minute, thin shel...
Stegerhynchus eoborealis sp. nov. from the Dalmanitina Beds (Hirnantian, uppermost Ordovician), Borenshult, Östergötland, Sweden, is described in this study as the earliest known species of Stegerhynchus, within the family Rhynchotrematidae. This implies that Stegerhynchus originated during the latest Ordovician mass extinction event, and radiated...
Shallow-water benthic marine invertebrates (such as brachiopods from Benthic Assemblages [BA] 1-3) have usually played a much more important role than deeper ones (BA 4-5 or even deeper) in evaluating biogeographical provincialism in geological history. The Silurian brachiopod Retziella Fauna, characterized by the common presence of Retziella in as...
The diachronous temporal and spatial distribution of the Hirnantia brachiopod fauna and the complicated pattern of terminal Ordovician events are documented through biostratigraphical analysis of the Ordovician-Silurian boundary strata in S China, Sibumasu, Xizang and elsewhere. The duration of these events (longer than the half Myr derived from is...
A new genus of pentameride brachiopod, Costilamnulella, described herein from the middle Ashgill of Sweden, is particularly interesting in that the ventral valve possesses both an interarea and a palintrope. Brachiopods normally have one or the other, but both structures do occur amongst the pentamerides, e.g. in Clorinda, Anastrophia and Brevilamn...
Earliest Silurian (basal Llandovery) brachiopod faunas are surveyed and listed from around the globe, and divided between Lower Rhuddanian and Upper Rhuddanian occurrences. 60 genera are known from the Lower Rhuddanian within 20 superfamilies and there are 87 genera in 25 superfamilies in the Upper Rhuddanian. The 29 areas surveyed span the globe,...
Analyses of global biodiversity curves have been important for the interpretation of co-evolution between organisms and environments through geological time. Global curves can be better understood if all the data collected from a multitude of palaeocontinents are analysed and explained separately. South China is a major block possessing more advant...
Shell beds in the uppermost Xiangshuyuan Formation and its coeval Upper Shihniulan Formation (Lower Silurian), northern Guizhou,
SW China, are interpreted as tempestites occurring on the Upper Yangtze Platform. The shells are dominated by two endemic
and transient virgianid (brachiopod) taxa, Paraconchidium shiqianensis and Virgianella glabera, whi...
Sixteen species from the Lower Silurian (mostly Aeronian and rarely Telychian) of South China have been assigned previously to the brachiopod family Pentameridae, mainly to the genus Pentamerus. Study of intrapopulation variation suggests that 13 species from the upper Aeronian Lojoping Formation of the Yichang area, western Hubei Province, can be...
Earliest Rhuddanian (Silurian) brachiopods are recorded from the basal part of the Lower Llandovery Shiyang and Anji formations in western Zhejiang and northeastern Jiangxi provinces, East China. Associated graptolites including Normalograptus jerini indicate the lowest Rhuddanian Akidograptus ascensus Biozone. The surviving brachiopod fauna includ...
Lower to Middle Ordovician transitional strata (Acrograptus filiformis Biozone to Exigraptus clavus Biozone) of the Upper Yangtze Platform contain rich and diverse brachiopods, particularly in the Daguanshan Formation of Sichuan Province, the Meitan Formation of Guizhou Province, and the Yingpan Formation of Houping, Chongqing City. On the basis of...
The Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Hirnantian Stage (the uppermost of the Ordovician System) is defined at a point 0.39m below the base of the Kuanyinchiao Bed in the Wangjiawan North section. The section is located near Wangjiawan village, 42 km north of Yichang city (western Hubei, China), at 30° 58′56″N a...
Global analyses of 88 families and 284 genera of brachiopods from middle Ashgill, Late Ordovician, to early-middle Rhuddanian, Early Silurian, indicate that 18.6% and 12.5% of families and 51.0% and 41.3% of genera were eliminated in the first and second phases of the end-Ordovician mass extinction, respectively, with the total loss of 28.4% of fam...
Reexamination of type and topotype material revealed the presence of well-developed ventral and dorsal interareas in two virgianid brachiopods from South China, Eoconchidium jiangshanensis Liang (in Liu et al., 1983) and Paraconchidium shiqianensis Rong, Xu, and Yang, 1974, of Late Ordovician and Early Silurian ages, respectively. A cladistic analy...
A silicified brachiopod fauna from the Middle Ordovician Kuniutan Formation (lower–middle Darriwilian, i.e. uppermost Arenig to lower Llanvirn) at Wudang, Guiyang, central Guizhou, South China, includes abundant specimens of Yangtzeella, Orthambonites and Leptellina together with common Parisorthis, Saucrorthis, rare Anomalorthis?, Hemipronites?, L...
Restudy of two Early Silurian (Aeronian) stricklandioid species, Stricklandinia transversa Grabau, 1925 and Stricklandiella robusta Rong and Yang, 1981 from the Yichang area of South China, leads to the recognition of two new genera, Sinokulumbella and Sinostricklandiella. Two types of spondylia and four types of cardinalia are recognized for the S...
Affected by paleogeographic position, paleoclimatic condition and depositional environments, the increase of the Early-Mid
Ordovician brachiopod diversity of South China commenced at the beginning of the Ordovician (early Tremadoc), accelerated
from the Tetragraptus approximatus Biozone (base of Arenig), and reached its first acme in the Didymograp...
The regional geology of southern Inner Mongolia records relationships between an upper Silurian coastline and a small island on what was formerly the continental shelf of the Sino-Korean Plate ( North China Block). In both cases, rocky shorelines are defined by unconformities between strata of Ludlow age in the Xibiehe Formation and underlying igne...
Athyrisinine brachiopods from the Upper Silurian of Russia and the Lower–Middle Devonian of China and north Vietnam include over 70 species belonging to Athyrisina and Parathyrisina; generic and subfamilial diagnoses are emended. Five genera are considered synonyms of Athyrisina and three of Parathyrisina. A neotype is selected and illustrated for...
Holorhynchus giganteus Kiaer, 1902, a common Late Ordovician (mid-Ashgill) pentameride brachiopod in the Baltic region, Kazakhstan, and southern Tien Shan, is documented for the first time from the Badanjilin Formation (mid-Ashgill) of western Inner Mongolia (Alxa block), North China. Serial sections of the Chinese material confirm the presence of...
Lithofacies and biofacies changes through the Ordovician and Silurian transition on the Yangtze platform are coincident with stepwise mass extinctions, recovery events, global sea-level changes, and regional palaeogeographic configurations. Facies patterns through three intervals, the late-mid Ashgill, Hirnantian, and early Rhuddanian, indicate tha...
Here we present Sr, C, and O isotope curves for Ordovician marine calcite based on analyses of 206 calcitic brachiopods from 10 localities worldwide. These are the first Ordovician-wide isotope curves that can be placed within the newly emerging global biostratigraphic framework. A total of 182 brachiopods were selected for C and O isotope analysis...
2003.01 Compilation of the marine, benthic megafossils from approximately the mid-Ashgill of the Mediterranean region, including much of Central and Southern Europe plus North Africa, and elsewhere indicates a warm interval featuring bioclastic limestone and a warm climate marine fauna. These mid-Ashgill faunas immediately precede the latest Ashgil...
The genus Sphenothallus was erected by Hall (1847, p. 261), who originally considered it a land plant. Sphenothallus was later classified as a marine invertebrate. Moore and Harrington (1956, p. F65) regarded Sphenothallus as a hydrozoan or scyphozoan. Van Iten et al. (1992, p. 139) supported Moore and Harrington's idea, and argued that it displays...
The late Ordovician Hirnantia brachiopod fauna is a well-defined and well-documented benthic association comprising a number of core taxa with widespread geographic distributions; the fauna is generally associated with glacially-driven environmental changes at the end of the Ordovician Period. Re-evaluation of the fauna indicates, however, the deve...
Global analyses of nearly 90 families and 275 genera of brachiopods from the middle Ashgill through the Hirnantian (Ordovician) to the lower-middle Rhuddanian (Silurian) suggest that about 60% and 40% of the total number of genera were eliminated at the first and second phases of the end Ordovician extinction event, respectively. Among the 85 survi...
