Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:46:21.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Middle Cambrian articulate brachiopods from the Southern New England Fold Belt, Northeastern N.S.W., Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Glenn A. Brock*
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecostratigraphy and Palaeobiology, School of Earth Sciences, Macquarie University, N.S.W. 2109, Australia

Abstract

Calcareous articulate brachiopods are rare components of the high diversity, phosphatic, silicified, and epidote coated shelly fauna derived from Middle Cambrian (Floran-Undillan) allochthonous limestone clasts from the Murrawong Creek Formation, southern New England Fold Belt, northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Three taxa are described, the kutorginids Nisusia metula n. sp., and Yorkia sp. indet., and the protorthid Arctohedra austrina n. sp. Yorkia is documented from Australia for the first time. An unusual valve (possibly a brachial valve) of enigmatic affinity is also reported and illustrated. Generically, the taxa provide broad regional paleobiogeographic links with the “first discovery limestone” Member of the Coonigan Formation, western New South Wales, and the Current Bush Limestone in the Georgina Basin, northern Australia, and globally, with broadly contemporaneous sequences in western North America, Siberia, and South China.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitchison, J. C., and Flood, P. G. 1995. Gamilaroi Terrane: a Devonian rifted intra-oceanic island-arc assemblage, N.S.W., Australia, p. 155168. In Smellie, J. L. (ed.), Volcanism Associated with Extension at Consuming Plate Margins. Geological Society of London, London.Google Scholar
Aitchison, J. C., Flood, P. G., and Spiller, F. C. P. 1992. Tectonic setting and palaeoenvironment of terranes in the southern New England Orogen, eastern Australia as constrained by radiolarian biostratigraphy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 94:3154.Google Scholar
Aitchison, J. C., and Ireland, T. R. 1995. Age profile of ophiolitic rocks across the Late Palaeozoic New England Orogen, New South Wales: implications for tectonic models. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 42:1123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aksarina, N. A. 1960. Brakhiopody, p. 143152. In Khalfin, L. L. (ed.), Biostratigrafita paleozoia Saiano-Altaiskoi gornoi oblasti, Tom I. Sibirskii Nauchno-Issledovatel'skii Institut Geologii, Geofiziki i Mineralogii, Trudy, 19. Moscow.Google Scholar
Aksarina, N. A. 1975. Brakhiopody. In Stratigrafiya i fauna nizhnego paleozoya severnykh predgoriy Turkestanskogo i Alayskogo Khrebtov. Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki, 278:91100.Google Scholar
Aksarina, N. A., and Pel'man, Yu. L. 1978. Kembriyskiye brakhiopody i dvukhstvorchatye mollyuski Sibiri. Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki, Sibirskoe Otdelenie, AN SSSR, 362.Google Scholar
Amsden, T. W., and Biernat, G. 1965. Pentamerida, p. H523H552. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology, Pt. H, Brachiopoda 2. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Andreeva, O. N. 1962. Nekotorye kembriykye brakhiopody Sibiri I sredney Azii. Paleontologicheskii zhurnal, 1962:8796.Google Scholar
Andreeva, O. N. 1987. The Cambrian articulate brachiopods. Paleontological Journal, 87:2738.Google Scholar
Angelin, N. P. 1851. Palaeontologia Scandinavica, Pars 1. Crustacea formationis transitionis. Academiae Regiae Scientarium Suecanae (Holmiae), 24 p.Google Scholar
Bell, C. W. 1941. Cambrian Brachiopoda from Montana. Journal of Paleontology, 15:193255.Google Scholar
Billings, E. 1861-1865. Palaeozoic fossils: containing descriptions and figures of new or little known species of organic remains from the Silurian rocks. Geological Survey of Canada, 1:1426 (p. 1-24, 1861).Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J. D., Weaver, S. D., and Laird, M. G. 1985. Suspect terranes and Cambrian tectonics in Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica, p. 467479. In Howell, D. G. (ed.), Tectonostratigraphic Terranes of the circum-Pacific Region. Circum-pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources Houston, Texas.Google Scholar
Briggs, D. E. G., Erwin, D. H., and Collier, F. J. 1994. The Fossils of the Burgess Shale. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 238 p.Google Scholar
Brock, G. A. In press. Middle Cambrian molluscs from the southern New England Fold Belt, New South Wales, Australia. Geobios 31.Google Scholar
Cawood, P. A. 1976. Cambro-Ordovician strata, northern New South Wales. Search, 7:378379.Google Scholar
Cawood, P. A. 1980. The geological development of the New England Fold Belt. Unpublished , The University of Sydney, 429 p.Google Scholar
Cawood, P. A. 1983. Modal composition and detrital clinopyroxene geochemistry of lithic sandstones from the New England Fold Belt (east Australia): a Paleozoic forcare terrane. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 94:381392.Google Scholar
Cooper, G. A. 1936. New Cambrian brachiopods from Alaska. Journal of Paleontology, 10:210214.Google Scholar
Cooper, G. A. 1954. Brachiopoda, p. 6784. In Geologia y Paleontologia de la region de Carborca, norponiente de Sonora. Pt. 1, Paleontologia y estratigrafia del Cambrico de Carborca. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Instituto de Geologia, Bolletin 58.Google Scholar
Cooper, G. A. 1976. Lower Cambrian brachiopods from the Rift Valley (Israel and Jordan). Journal of Paleontology, 50:269289.Google Scholar
Cooper, R. A., and Shergold, J. H. 1991. Palaeozoic invertebrates of Antarctica, pp. 455486. In Tingey, R. J. (ed.), The Geology of Antarctica. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Daily, B. 1956. The Cambrian in South Australia, p. 91147. In Rodgers, J. (ed.), El Sistema Cámbrico, su Paleogeografia y el Problema de su Base. 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico.Google Scholar
Dalziel, I. W. D., Dalla Salda, L. H., and Gahagan, L. M. 1994. Paleozoic Laurentia-Gonwana interaction and the origin of the Appalachian-Andean mountain system. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 106:243252.Google Scholar
Duméril, A. M. C. 1806. Zoologie Analytique ou Methode Naturelle de Classification des Animaux. Allais, Paris, 344 p.Google Scholar
Endo, R., and Resser, C. E. 1937. The Sinian and Cambrian formations and fossils of southern Manchoukuo. Manchurian Science Museum Bulletin, 1:1473.Google Scholar
Engelbretsen, M. E. 1993. A Middle Cambrian possible cnidarian from the Murrawong Creek Formation, NE New South Wales. Memoir of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, 15:5156.Google Scholar
Engelbretsen, M. E. 1996. Middle Cambrian lingulates from the Murrawong Creek Formation, north eastern New South Wales. Historical Biology, 11:6999.Google Scholar
Flood, P. G., and Aitchison, J. C. 1988. Tectonostratigraphic terranes of the southern part of the New England Orogen, p. 710. In Kleeman, J. D. (ed.), New England Orogen-Tectonics and Metallogenesis. Armidale.Google Scholar
Flood, P. G., and Aitchison, J. C. 1992. Late Devonian accretion of the Gamilaroi terrane to eastern Gondwana: provenance linkage suggested by the first appearance of Lachlan Fold Belt-derived quartzites. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 39:539544.Google Scholar
Gil Cid, M. -D., and Melou, M. 1988. Brachiopodes du Cambrien moyen de Zafra (Province de Badajoz, Espagne). Géologie Méditerranéenne, 12-13:197205.Google Scholar
Glen, R. A., and Scheibner, E. 1993. Lachlan rocks in the New England Orogen, p. 123126. In Flood, P. G. and Aitchison, J. C. (eds.), NEO '93 Conference Proceedings, New England University Press, Armidale.Google Scholar
Harland, B. W., Armstrong, R. L., Cox, A. V., Craig, L. E., Smith, A. G., and Smith, D. G. 1989. A geologic time scale 1989. University of Cambridge Press, Cambridge, 263 p.Google Scholar
Harper, D. A. T., Brunton, C. H. C., Cocks, L. R. M., Copper, P., Doyle, N., Jeffrey, A. L., Owen, E. F., Parkes, M. A., Popov, L. E., and Prosser, E. N. 1993. Brachiopoda, p. 427462. In Benton, M. J. (ed.), The Fossils Record 2. Chapman and Hall, London.Google Scholar
Havlíček, V. 1977. Brachiopods of the Order Orthida in Czechoslovakia. Rozpravy Ústrédního Ústavu geologického, 44:1328.Google Scholar
Hill, D., Playford, G. and Woods, J. T. 1971. Cambrian fossils of Queensland. Queensland Palaeontographical Society, 32 p. Brisbane.Google Scholar
Holmer, L. E., Popov, L. E., Bassett, M. G., and Laurie, J. R. 1995. Phylogenetic analysis and ordinal classification of the Brachiopoda. Palaeontology, 38:713741.Google Scholar
You-Zhuang, Huang, Hua-Yu, Wang, Yuan-Long, Zhao, and Xin-Chun, Dai. 1994. Brachiopods from Early-Middle Cambrian Kaili Formation in Taijiang, Guizhou. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 33:335342. [In Chinese with English summary] Google Scholar
Jell, P. A. 1975. Australian Middle Cambrian eodiscoids with a review of the superfamily. Palaeontographica A, 150:1197.Google Scholar
Jeppsson, L., Fredholm, D., and Mattiasson, B. 1985. Acetic acid and phosphatic fossils-a warning. Journal of Paleontology, 59:952956.Google Scholar
Kindle, C. H. 1942. A Lower(?) Cambrian fauna from eastern Gaspé, Quebec. American Journal of Science, 240:633641.Google Scholar
Koneva, S. P. 1979. Stenotekoidy i bezzamkovye brakhiopody nizhnego i nizov srednego kembriya Tsentral'nogo Kazakhstana. Institut geoloicheskiy nauk Inn. K. I. Satpaeva, Akademiya Nauk Kazakhskoy SSSR Nauka, Alma-Ata, 123 p.Google Scholar
Korsch, R. J., and Harrington, H. J. 1981. Stratigraphic and structural synthesis of the New England Orogen. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 28:205226.Google Scholar
Kuhn, O. 1949. Lehrbuch der Palaozoologie. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 326 p.Google Scholar
Leitch, E. C., and Cawood, P. A. 1987. Provenance determination of volcaniclastic rocks: the nature and tectonic significance of a Cambrian conglomerate from the new England Fold Belt, eastern Australia. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 57:630638.Google Scholar
Leitch, E. C., and Cawood, P. A. 1996. Early Palaeozoic convergent margin elements in the New England Fold Belt and the inception of the Pacific “ring of fire”. 13th Australian Geological Convention, Canberra. Geological Society of Australia Abstracts, 41:246.Google Scholar
Leitch, E. C., Iwasaki, M., Honma, H., Watanabe, T., Iizumi, S., Ishiga, H., and Kawachi, Y. 1988. The structure of the southern part of the New England Fold Belt, p. 931. In Preliminary report on the Geology of the New England Fold Belt, Australia, 1:1–237.Google Scholar
Lermontova, E. V. 1940. Klass Brachiopoda. In Atlas rudkovodyashchikh form ickopaemykh faun SSSR, tom 1, Moskova-Leningrad, Gosgeolozdat, p. 104108.Google Scholar
Lindsay, J. F. 1990. Forearc basin dynamics and sedimentation controls, Tamworth belt, eastern Australia. BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics, 11:521528.Google Scholar
Linnarsson, J. G. O. 1869. Om Vestergotlands Cambriska och Siluriska Aflagringar. Konglinga svenska Vetenskaps Academie Handlinga, 8:389.Google Scholar
Di-Yong, Liu. 1987. Brachiopods and tommotiids near Precambrian-Cambrian boundary in SW China, p. 346400. In Stratigraphy and Palaeontology of Systemic Boundaries in China, Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary 1. Nanjing University Publishing House. Nanjing.Google Scholar
Lochman-Balk, C. 1956. The Cambrian of the Rocky Mountains and southwest deserts of the United States and adjoining Sonora Province, Mexico, p. 529662. In Rodgers, J. (ed.), Sistema Cámbrico, su paleogeografia y el problema de su base. 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, D. I. 1983. A late Middle Cambrian orthide-kutorginide brachiopod fauna from northwest Nelson, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 26:97102.Google Scholar
Mount, J. D. 1981. A new articulate brachiopod from the Lower Cambrian Latham Shale, southeastern California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Science, 80:4548.Google Scholar
Murray, C. G. 1988. Tectonic evolution and metallogenesis of the New England Orogen, p. 204210. In Kleeman, J. D. (ed.), New England Orogen, Tectonics and Metallogenesis, Armidale.Google Scholar
Nikitin, I. F. 1956. Brakhiopody kembriya i nizhnego ordovika severovostoka Tsentral'nogo Kazakhstana. Ackademiya Nauk Kazakhskoy SSR Press, Alma-Ata, I43 p., 15 pls.Google Scholar
Öpik, A. A. 1956. Cambrian geology of the Northern Territory, p. 2554. In Rodgers, J. (ed.), Sistema Cámbrico, su paleogeografía y el problema de su base. 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico.Google Scholar
Öpik, A. A. 1961. The geology and palaeontology of the headwaters of the Burke River, Queensland. Bulletin of the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, 53:1249.Google Scholar
Öpik, A. A. 1968. The Ordian stage of the Cambrian and its Australian Metadoxididae. Bulletin Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Australia, 92:133170.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. R., and Repetski, J. E. 1983. Middle Cambrian fossils in central Brooks Range, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Paper, 1375:180181.Google Scholar
Pel'man, Yu. L. 1983. Tip brakhiopody, p. 147154. In Sokolov, B. S. and Zhuravleva, I. T., Yarusuoe raschlenenye nizhnego kembriya Sibiri. Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki, 558. Moscow.Google Scholar
Pel'man, Yu. L. 1987. Kembriyskie brakhiopody, p. 98121, pl. 18-25. In Nizhniy palezoy yugo-zapadnogo sklona Anabarskoy anteklizy po' materialam bureníya. Novosibirsk (Nauka).Google Scholar
Popov, L. Yu. 1992. The Cambrian radiation of brachiopods, p. 399423. In Signor, P. W. (ed.), Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Popov, L. Yu., Bassett, M. G., Holmer, L. E., and Laurie, J. R. 1993. Phylogenetic analysis of higher taxa of Brachiopoda. Lethaia, 26:15.Google Scholar
Popov, L. Yu., Holmer, L. E. and Bassett, M. G. 1996. Radiation of the earliest calcareous brachiopods, p. 209213. In Copper, P. and Jin, J. (eds.), Brachiopods. Proceedings of the Third International Brachiopod Congress, Sudbury/Ontario, Canada. Balkema Press, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Popov, L. Yu. Holmer, L. E., Rowell, A. J., and Peel, J. S. 1997. Early Cambrian brachiopods from North Greenland. Paleontology, 40:337354.Google Scholar
Popov, L. Yu., and Yu Tikhonov, A. 1990. Ranne kembriyskie brakhiopody iz yuzhnoy Kirgiziy. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 1990:3345.Google Scholar
Roberts, J., and Jell, P. A. 1990. Early Middle Cambrian (Ordian) brachiopods of the Coonigan Formation, western New South Wales. Alcheringa, 14:257309.Google Scholar
Robison, R. A. 1964. Late Middle Cambrian faunas from western Utah. Journal of Paleontology, 38:510566.Google Scholar
Robison, R. A., 1991. Middle Cambrian biotic diversity: examples from four Utah lagerstätten, p. 7798. In Simonetta, A. and Conway Morris, S. (eds.), The Early Evolution of Metazoa and the Significance of Problematic Taxa. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rowell, A. J. 1962. The genera of the brachiopod superfamilies Obolellacea and Siphonotretacea. Journal of Paleontology, 36:136152.Google Scholar
Rowell, A. J. 1965. Class Uncertain, p. H296297. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology, Pt. H, Brachiopoda 1. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Rowell, A. J., and Caruso, N. E. 1985. The evolutionary significance of Nisusia sulcata, an early articulate brachiopod. Journal of Paleontology, 59:12271242.Google Scholar
Schuchert, C. 1893. A classification of the Brachiopoda. American Geologist, 11:141167.Google Scholar
Schuchert, C., and Cooper, G. A. 1931. Synopsis of the brachiopod genera of the suborders Orthoidea and Pentameroidea, with notes on the Telotremata. American Journal of Science, 22:241251.Google Scholar
Schuchert, C., and Cooper, G. A. 1932. Brachiopod genera of the suborders Orthoidea and Pentameroidea. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 4:1270.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. B. 1955. Paleontology of northwestern Vermont. V. The Lower Cambrian fauna. Journal of Paleontology, 29:775805.Google Scholar
Shaw, A. B., 1957. Paleontology of northwestern Vermont. 6. The early Middle Cambrian fauna. Journal of Paleontology, 31:785792.Google Scholar
Shergold, J. H. 1995. Timescales 1, Cambrian. Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO) Record, 1995/30, 32 p.Google Scholar
Shergold, J. H., Jago, J. B., Cooper, R. A., and Laurie, J. R. 1985. The Cambrian System in Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand. Correlation charts and Explanatory notes. International Union of Geological Sciences, Publication, 19:185.Google Scholar
Shimer, H. W., and Shrock, R. R. 1963. Index fossils of North America, 7th edition. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. 837 p.Google Scholar
Sloan, T. R. 1991. Late Middle Cambrian trilobites from allochthonous blocks in the Murrawong Creek Formation, N.S.W. Unpublished , Macquarie University, Sydney, 74 p.Google Scholar
Stewart, I. 1995. Cambrian age for the Pipeclay Creek Formation, Tamworth Belt, northern New South Wales. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, 182:565566.Google Scholar
Størmer, L. 1925. On a Lower Cambrian fauna at Ustaoset in Norway. Fennia, 45:1221.Google Scholar
Tate, R. 1892. The Cambrian fossils of South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 15:183189.Google Scholar
Tullberg, S. A. 1880. Agnostus—artena i de Kambriska aflagringarne vid Andrarum. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning, Series C, 44:138.Google Scholar
Ushatinskaya, G. T. 1986. Nakhoda drevnejshevej zamkovoj brakhiopody. Paleontologicheskiy Zhurnal, 1986:102103.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1897. Cambrian brachiopoda: Genera Iphidea and Yorkia with description of new species of each and of the genus Acrothele. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 3:707717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1905. Cambrian brachiopoda with descriptions of new genera and species. Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum , 28:227337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1908. Cambrian Brachiopoda: descriptions of new genera and species. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 53:53165.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1912. Cambrian Brachiopoda. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph, 51:872 p.Google Scholar
Walcott, C. D. 1924. Cambrian and Ozarkian Brachiopoda, Ozarkian Cephalopoda and Notostraca. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 67:477554.Google Scholar
Westergård, A. H. 1946. Agnostidae of the Middle Cambrian of Sweden. Sveriges Geologiska Undersokning, Series C, 477:1141.Google Scholar
Williams, A. 1970. Origin of laminar-shelled articulate brachiopods. Lethaia, 3:329342.Google Scholar
Williams, A., and Wright, A. D. 1965. Orthida, p. H299H359. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology, Pt. H, Brachiopoda 1. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Williams, A., Carlson, S. J., Brunton, C. H. C., Holmer, L. E., and Popov, L. E. 1996. A supra-ordinal classification of the Brachiopoda. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences, 351:11711193.Google Scholar
Wright, A. D. 1979. Brachiopod radiation. Systematics Association Special Volume, 12:235252.Google Scholar
Zhuravlev, A. Yu. 1995. Preliminary suggestions on the global Early Cambrian zonation, p. 147160. In Geyer, G. and Landing, E., (eds.), Morocco '95. The Lower-Middle Cambrian Standard of Western Gondwana, Beringeria Special Issue 2. Würzburg.Google Scholar