Synoptic revision of the Ordovician brachiopods of the Barr and Lower Ardmillan groups of the Girvan area, Scotland

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe generic assignments of some 200 Ordovician brachiopod species in the Barr and Lower Ardmillan (upper Darriwilian–lower Katian) succession, Girvan are reviewed and, where necessary, modified. This key database on the distribution and occurrence of a Laurentian-marginal brachiopod assemblage has featured in many analyses of global biogeography for the period and has confirmed the position of Girvan at relatively low latitudes. Revision of these taxonomic assignments within a modified stratigraphical framework permits closer comparisons with coeval faunas elsewhere around the palaeocontinent of Laurentia and beyond and allows the definition of a variety of brachiopod biofacies on a fault-controlled basin founded on a dismembered ophiolite.