Cornulitids (tubeworms) from the Late Ordovician Hirnantia fauna of Morocco

Two species of cornulitids, Cornulites gondwanensis sp. nov. and C. aff. shallochensis Reed are described from the Hirnantian of Morocco, within an assemblage representative of the Hirnantia brachiopod fauna occurring near the Ordovician South Pole. The dominance of aggregated and solitary free form...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of African Earth Sciences
Main Author: Gutiérrez Marco, Juan Carlos
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/47170/
https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/47170/1/Cornulitids%20%28tubeworms%29%20from%20the%20Late%20Ordovician.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464343X17303849
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2017.10.005
Description
Summary:Two species of cornulitids, Cornulites gondwanensis sp. nov. and C. aff. shallochensis Reed are described from the Hirnantian of Morocco, within an assemblage representative of the Hirnantia brachiopod fauna occurring near the Ordovician South Pole. The dominance of aggregated and solitary free forms could be explained by particular sedimentary environments preceding the Hirnantian glaciation and the latest Ordovician Extinction Event. The diversity of cornulitids in the Late Ordovician of Gondwana and related terranes was relatively low, and less diverse than the cornulitids of Laurentia and Baltica. Hirnantian cornulitids from Morocco do not resemble Late Ordovician cornulitids of Baltica and Laurentia. Moroccan cornulitids seem to be closely allied to some older Gondwanan cornulitids, especially Sardinian ones. They resemble species described from the Late Ordovician and Llandovery of Scotland suggesting a palaeobiogeographic link.