Strophomenid and triplesiid brachiopods from an Upper Ordovician carbonate mound in central Kazakhstan

Abstract

Ten species of strophomenid and triplesiid brachiopods are described from the Late Ordovician (late Caradoc to early Ashgill) Dulankara Regional Stage of Central Kazakhstan. They represent part of a diverse brachiopod assemblage, which was discovered in the top of a carbonate mound in the northern Betpak-Dala Desert. This brachiopod assemblage includes mostly genera not recorded previously from contemporaneous deposits in Kazakhstan, although they may be related to the long-lived lineages which appeared in the area during Llanvirn or Llandeilo. New taxa are: the plectambonitoids Bandaleta plana gen. et sp. nov., Shlyginia perplexa sp. nov., Sortanella quinquecostata gen. et sp. nov., Anoptambonites subcarinatus sp. nov., Anisopleurella ampla sp. nov., Craspedelia roomusoksi sp. nov., and triplesioid Triplesia sortanensis sp. nov.