Open Access
How to translate text using browser tools
31 May 2016 A Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) Bivalve-Dominated Molluscan Fauna from the Stairway Sandstone, Amadeus Basin, Central Australia
Kristian G. Jakobsen, Glenn A. Brock, Arne T. Nielsen, David A.T. Harper
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

A bivalve-dominated molluscan fauna is described from the Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) Stairway Sandstone, Amadeus Basin, central Australia. The fauna comprises 16 species of bivalves and rostroconchs plus six gastropod species which are treated under open nomenclature. Two new bivalves, Sthenodonta paenesymmetrica sp. nov. and Modiolopsis pojetai sp. nov., are described. The relatively low-diverse molluscan fauna constitutes around 62% of the total benthic macrofauna. Approximately 75% of the molluscs comprise bivalves, especially nuculoids, which were biogeographically restricted to low latitudes during the Ordovician. The molluscan assemblage displays a very high degree of endemism at species level, though the bivalve Sthenodonta eastii also occurs in the Georgina Basin farther to the northeast. This indicates a possible marine connective seaway between the Georgina and Amadeus basins during the Darriwilian. Nuculites, Cyrtodonta, and Modiolopsis are cosmopolitan and previously reported from North China, Avalonia, and Southern Gondwana.

© 2016 K.G. Jakobsen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Kristian G. Jakobsen, Glenn A. Brock, Arne T. Nielsen, and David A.T. Harper "A Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) Bivalve-Dominated Molluscan Fauna from the Stairway Sandstone, Amadeus Basin, Central Australia," Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 61(4), 897-924, (31 May 2016). https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00215.2015
Received: 8 October 2015; Accepted: 1 April 2016; Published: 31 May 2016
KEYWORDS
biodiversity
Bivalvia
Central Australia
Darriwilian
Endemicity
Mollusca
Ordovician
Back to Top