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Lower Ordovician brachiopods from the Ben Suardal Limestone Formation (Durness Group) of Skye, western Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Gordon B. Curry
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
Alwyn Williams
Affiliation:
Principal's Office, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.

Abstract

Ten silicified brachiopod taxa have been recovered from the Ben Suardal Limestone Formation (Durness Group) on the Isle of Skye, western Scotland. This Arenig fauna contains a new camerellid genus, Boreadocamara, and new species of each of the orthacean genera Archaeorthis, Fasciculina, and Oligorthis. Representatives of Billingsella, Finkelnburgia, Syntrophia, Syntrophopsis, and an indeterminate orthacean have also been recovered from etched residues of the Ben Suardal Limestone. The Skye fossils show strong affinities with the Scoto-Appalachian or American faunal province, in keeping with the inferred plate tectonic position of the Durness Group along the northwestern margin of the early Palaeozoic ‘Iapetus’ Ocean.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1984

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