Early Carboniferous spiriferoid brachiopods from the Qaidam Basin, Northwest China: Taxonomy, biostratigraphy and biogeography
Introduction
The Early Carboniferous brachiopod faunas from the Qaidam Basin in Northwest China (Fig. 1) have received limited attention, due to the area's remoteness and poor accessibility. As a follow-up study of the Early Carboniferous athyridid brachiopods from the Qaidam Basin (Chen et al., 2003), the present paper focuses specifically on the spiriferoids. The detailed taxonomy of these spiriferoids not only allows us to further constrain the age of the faunas, but also provides new insights into the biogeographical aspects of the Early Carboniferous brachiopod faunas as constrained by the contemporaneous palaeogeographic/palaeoclimatic conditions of the Qaidam Basin and neighbouring tectonic blocks.
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Stratigraphy and age
Although a number of stratigraphic studies have been published for the Qaidam Basin in Northwest China (e.g., Lu and Zhao, 1962, Yang et al., 1962a, Yang et al., 1962b, Mu et al., 1963a, Mu et al., 1963b, Mu et al., 1963c, Wang, 1981, Wang, 1987, Wang, 1990, Shi, 1983), the detailed Lower Carboniferous stratigraphy of this basin was not firmly established until recent times. According to Chen et al. (2003), the Lower Carboniferous in the Qaidam Basin is sandwiched between the underlying
Palaeobiogeographic distributions: centres of origin and migratory paths of Grandispirifer, Angiospirifer, and Anthracothyrina
Grandispirifer Yang, 1959 has been known from widely distributed areas in the Palaeo-Tethys during the Viséan (Table 1). The genus was originally erected with materials from the lower Viséan succession of the northern Tienshan areas, Xinjiang, Northwest China (Yang, 1959, Yang, 1964). Later, it was also reported from the Viséan of the southern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China (Zhang et al., 1983); of western Yunnan, Southwest China (Jin, 1987); and of the Akiyoshi Limestone Group,
Systematic palaeontology
The classification of the Spiriferoidea adopted here follows Carter et al. (2006) and Gourvennec and Carter (2007). All morphological terms are in current use, as in Brunton et al. (1996) and Williams and Brunton (1997). All described specimens were collected from the Lower Carboniferous Chuanshangou section in the Amunike Mountain, Wulan County, Qinghai Province, Northwest China (Fig. 1) by one of the authors (ZLP) and his colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences from 1976 to
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Bernard Mottequin and an anonymous reviewer for their careful reviews and constructive comments. This study is supported by Deakin University and a research grant from the Australian Research Council (to GRS, ARC DP150100690). ZQC's work is supported by a research grant from Chengdu Center, China Geological Survey (1212011220412).
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