A new fusulinid species from the early Permian of northwestern Peninsular Malaysia: Evidence of the Artinskian warming event in the eastern Peri-Gondwanan Sibumasu Block

Abstract

A new species of Crenulosepta, i.e., Crenulosepta perlisensis Vachard and Fassihi sp. nov., is described from a Cisuralian (Lower Permian) sandy limestones and calcareous sandstones in the Kubang Pasu Formation in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia, which forms part of the Peri-Gondwanan Sibumasu Block. Previous Malaysian authors reported the occurrence of Monodiexodina shiptoni and Monodiexodina sutschanica from the same area. The findings of this study provide a better overview of the Cisuralian fusulinid fauna found in this region. The presence of Crenulosepta confirms that the age of the uppermost part of the Kubang Pasu Formation is Artinskian, rather than extending into the Kungurian as previously recognized. The uppermost part of the Kubang Pasu Formation with its impoverished genus and species diversity is located just above the cold water brachiopods and diamictite beds. It indicates that during the Asselian (earliest Cisuralian), the northwestern Peninsular Malaysia was still part of the Gondwana continental shelf. During the late Early Permian, northwestern Peninsular Malaysia, as part of the eastern Cimmerian Continent, was located in a low latitude subtropical region of the paleo-equatorial tropical Tethyan Realm. The microfacies analysis of the Kubang Pasu Formation suggests a very high-energy, warm shallow marine environment of the inner ramp (e.g., sand shoals and banks).