Special Papers in Palaeontology, The Late Ordovician Brachiopods of Southern Pembrokeshire and Adjacent South-Western Wales

Although the Upper Ordovician shelly faunas of South Pembrokeshire (Avalonia at that time) have been studied for over 150 years, the brachiopods have never before been properly documented. This monograph erects 16 new species and substantially revises the systematics of the rest of the brachiopod fauna (about 75 species in all). The faunas are compared with other contemporaneous Avalonian brachiopod assemblages, and two major faunal turnovers are recognised. Implications for understanding better the palaeogeography of Avalonia, Laurussia, Baltica, and north-western Gondwana are discussed. Abstract

Introduction

Previous Work

Stratigraphy

Correlation

Avalonian Late Ordovician Brachiopods

Ecology and Association

Palaeogeography

Systematic Palaeontology

Leonard Robert Morrison Cocks OBE TD, known as Robin Cocks, is a British geologist, formerly Keeper of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum. Cocks was educated at Felsted School and Hertford College, Oxford. Although the Upper Ordovician shelly faunas of South Pembrokeshire (Avalonia at that time) have been studied for over 150 years, the brachiopods have never before been properly documented. This monograph erects 16 new species and substantially revises the systematics of the rest of the brachiopod fauna (about 75 species in all). The faunas are compared with other contemporaneous Avalonian brachiopod assemblages, and two major faunal turnovers are recognised. Implications for understanding better the palaeogeography of Avalonia, Laurussia, Baltica, and north-western Gondwana are discussed.