LATE CRETACEOUS BRACHIOPODS OF THE PERTH AND CARNARVON BASINS, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract - Late Cretaceous deposits outcrop in the Perth and Carnarvon Basins in Western Australia. Brachiopods occur in the Gingin Chalk in the Perth Basin and in the Toolonga Calcilutite, Korojon Calcarenite and Miria Formation in the Carnarvon Basin. Fifteen species of brachiopods are described or revised from the Santonian to Campanian Gingin Chalk, seven species from the Santonian to Campanian Toolonga Calcilutite, two species from the Campanian to Maastrichtian Korojon Calcarenite and five species
from the Late Maastrichtian Miria Formation. 

Ten new species are described: Eohemithyris miriansis sp. nov., E. wildei sp. nov., Protegulorhynchia bevanorum sp. nov., Tegulorhynchia hrodelberti sp. nov., Terebratulina kendricki sp. nov., Liothyrella brimmellae sp. nov., L. archboldi sp. nov. Gemmarcula doddsae sp. nov., Zenobiathyris mutabilis sp. nov. and Z. plicatilis sp. nov. This is the earliest record of Liothyrella, and the first record from Australia. A new family, Zenobiathyridae, is proposed. 

The presence of a number of genera common to Late Cretaceous and "early Tertiary" of the deposits Antarctic Peninsula suggests that there was a continuous shelf between Western Australia and Antarctica during this period. It is proposed that these brachiopods form part of a high latitude southern circum-Indo-Atlantic faunal province which existed during the Late Cretaceous to the early Cenozoic.