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The field collections made from Burma (Myanmar) by the Geological Survey of India, and described by F.R.C. Reed more than a century ago, still provide the only ‘ground truthing’ for an important region of the Ordovician marginal terranes fringing Gondwana. A revision of these faunas is overdue, particularly as it is likely that further collections cannot be made in the northern Shan State in the near future. The specimens, stored in the Geological Survey of India collections in Kolkata, cannot be loaned. Sixteen species are fully revised herein; another twelve species are left under open nomenclature because of inadequacies in the material. Several of Reed’s species subsequently became type species of genera that have proved to be widespread: Birmanites Sheng, 1934, Encrinurella Reed, 1915, Neseuretinus Dean, 1967, and Pliomerina Chugaeva, 1956. Reed’s Ordovician trilobite collections came from two main areas: northern Shan State (Myanmar), and westernmost Yunnan (China). The Burmese (Myanmar) collections are from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) while Yunnan specimens are from the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian), though Upper Ordovician trilobites also occur in the area. Both collections are predominantly from clastic strata. Based on a small new Katian collection from Pupiao, we report Neseuretinus birmanicus (Reed, 1906) in common between the northern part of the Shan State and western Yunnan. A few genera (Dionide Barrande, 1847, Phorocephala Lu, 1957, Lonchodomas Angelin, 1854, Nileus Dalman, 1827) are distributed worldwide, and include pelagic (Phorocephala) or deeper benthic (Dionide) taxa. The palaeogeographic comparisons offered by the other taxa are mostly peri-Gondwanan and extend from southwest China westwards (present geography) as far as the Iberian Pennsula. Birmanites is the type genus of a subfamily (Birmanitinae Kobayashi, 1960, revived herein) widely distributed over Ordovician Gondwana, and absent from Laurentia, Baltica and North China/Siberia. Mioptychopyge Zhou, Dean, Yuan & Zhou, 1998, probably belongs with the same group and is otherwise known from South China. Parillaenus Jaanusson, 1954, is also peripheral Gondwanan, as is Prionocheilus Rouault, 1847. The Reedocalymeninae Kobayashi, 1951 (Neseuretinus, Reedocalymene Kobayashi, 1951) are similarly diagnostic of peri–Gondwanan sites. However, some genera (Pliomerina, Encrinurella, Ovalocephalus Koroleva, 1959) have been associated with other oriental and Australian occurrences in particular, with ‘outliers’ in certain terranes in Kazakhstan, i.e. palaeotropical Gondwana.
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Closing a biogeographic gap: a new pettalid genus from South Australia (Arachnida : Opiliones : Cyphophthalmi : Pettalidae) with a UCE-based phylogeny of Cyphophthalmi
Pettalidae is a family of mite harvestmen that inhabits the former circum-Antarctic Gondwanan terranes, including southern South America, South Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand. Australia is home to two pettalid genera, Austropurcellia, in northern New South Wales and Queensland, and Karripurcellia, in Western Australia, until now showing a large distributional gap between these two parts of the Australian continent. Here we report specimens of a new pettalid from South Australia, Archaeopurcellia eureka, gen. et sp. nov., closing this distributional gap of Australian pettalids. Phylogenetic analyses using traditional Sanger markers as well as ultra-conserved elements (UCEs) reveal that the new genus is related to the Chilean Chileogovea, instead of any of the other East Gondwanan genera. This relationship of an Australian species to a South American clade can be explained by the Antarctic land bridge between these two terranes, a connection that was maintained with Australia until 45 Ma. The UCE dataset also shows the promise of using museum specimens to resolve relationships within Pettalidae and Cyphophthalmi. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9B57A054-30D8-4412-99A2-6191CBD3BD7E
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- Award ID(s):
- 1754278
- PAR ID:
- 10470696
- Editor(s):
- Sharma, Prashant
- Publisher / Repository:
- CSIRO Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Invertebrate Systematics
- Volume:
- 36
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 1445-5226
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1002 to 1016
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1071/IS22043
