Late Ordovician Brachiopods From the Portrane Limestone, Ireland, and Their Significance

Abstract

Study of the mid-Katian brachiopod fauna of the Portrane Limestone Formation, eastern Ireland, is concluded and reviewed. It is a relatively diverse assemblage, consisting (with some bryozoans, corals, trilobites, and ostracodes) of over 70 species, although with few endemic to the Portrane Limestone. However, the seven strophomenoid, one rhynchonelloid, and three atrypoid brachiopods newly revised here are less diverse than the previously described orthoids and other brachiopods from the Portrane Limestone Formation, and markedly less diverse than in comparable contemporary Katian carbonate beds in England, Wales, and Sweden.