Early Cretaceous scleractinian corals from Xenkyer, Baingoin, Xizang (Tibet)

The Early Cretaceous scleractinian corals described in the present paper were collected by the Geological Survey of Jilin Province from the Duomi and Langshan formations of Xenkyer, Baingoin, Xizang (Tibet). These fossil corals occur in asso-ciation with some typical Early Cretaceous Orbitolina. The scleractinian corals described and illustrated comprise 10 species within 10 genera including 3 new species. They include: Cyathophora ? sp., Stylina namcoensis sp. nov., Epistreptophyllum cf. diatritum Wu, 1975, Protethmos cf. discus Liao and Xia, 1985, Axosmilia sp., Placophyllia baingoingensis sp. nov., Hydnophora styriaca (Michelin), 1847, Eohydnophora baingoinensis sp. nov. Prototrochocyathus ? sp., Ironella giseldonensis Starostina and Krasnov, 1970. Although the material described herein are not much, a few genera and species afford evidence for constraining the age of the fossil–bearing deposits. Even the geological range of the greater part of the genera is from the Jurassic to Cretaceous, however, the genera Eohydnophora and Prototrochocyathus are the characteristic Cretaceous corals. The genus Eohyd-nophora has hitherto been known from the Cretaceous of Japan and China. The range of Hydnophora lasted from Creta-ceous up to now but the holotype of Hydnophora styriaca (Michelin) was from the Upper Cretaceous of Austria. Taken to-gether, the fossil asemblage indicates an Early Cretaceous age, obviously bearing a much closer relationship with those of Japan, the Himalayas, the Caucasus, the Carpathians, the Alps, Austria, Germany and France. Since very few scleractinian corals have been reported from the Early Cretaceous of Tibet, these fossils are important for the stratigraphical correlation of the Cretaceous in Tibet.

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