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The earliest rugose coral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2012

CHRISTIAN BAARS ,
MANSOUREH GHOBADI POUR  and
ROBERT C. ATWOOD
CHRISTIAN BAARS*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK
MANSOUREH GHOBADI POUR
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
ROBERT C. ATWOOD
Affiliation:
Diamond Light Source, Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0DE, UK
*
†Author for correspondence: christian.baars@museumwales.ac.uk
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Abstract

Rugose corals are thought to have evolved from an ancestral anthozoan during the Middle Ordovician Epoch even though there is a lack of fossil evidence for the early evolutionary history of the Rugosa. Previously documented species of early rugose corals are all assigned to the main orders Calostylina, Streptelasmatina, Cystiphyllina and Stauriina, which had all evolved by the late Sandbian. Lambelasma? sp., a new rugose coral, was recovered from the upper Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) part of the Shirgesht Formation of Central Iran. One of the fossils, partly embedded in rock matrix, was examined using synchrotron X-ray tomography, which is here demonstrated to be a useful tool in palaeontological taxonomic studies. The new fossils form part of a mid-latitude Gondwana fauna and are the earliest record of rugose corals to date. The specimens combine features of both the Streptelasmatina and Calostylina, but are here assigned to the Lambelasmatidae (Calostylina) on the grounds of a very deep calice, the pinnate arrangement of the septa and a lack of synapticulae and tabulae.

Keywords

RugosaLambelasmatidaeDarriwilianOrdoviciancoral evolutionsynchrotron X-ray tomographyIran

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Type
Rapid Communication
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 150 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 371 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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