Rugose corals from the Hezhou Formation (Mississippian, Carboniferous) in Chaohu, Anhui Province
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Abstract:
The Mississippian is a subperiod of the Carboniferous during which the rugose corals prospered. During the late Visean and Serpukhovian, the onset of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, coupled with the Hercynian Orogenic movement, resulted in rapid sea-level changes. Regions in the western Palaeotethys, such as the present-day western Europe, were affected by the sea-level fluctuations and facies changes recorded in marine sedimentary successions, resulting in the punctuation and scarcity of rugose coral fossil record. South China, however, was less affected, and shallow marine carbonate successions with abundant rugose coral fossils were widespread and well-developed. From a collection of coral fossils recovered from the Hezhou Formation near Chaohu, Anhui Province, Lower Yangtze region, a total of 15 species belonging to 11 genera, including two species conformis, one species affinis and three species indeterminabilis are recognized. The coral fauna consists of elements of the late Datangian type from South China, and can be assigned to the Aulina rotiformis Zone (the upper part of the former Yuanophyllum Zone), inferring the Serpukhovian age for the Hezhou Formation. The assemblage correlates well with the Neoclisiophyllum yengtzeense–oninckophyllum stellatum subzone and Lophophyllum lophyphylloidea subzone of the Zimenqiao Formation in central Hunan, and to the Palaeosmillia militaris Zone and Lithostrotion decipiens–Dibunophyllum bipartitum Zone of the Zhaojiashan Formation in western Guizhou. The size and growth-form, the symbiotic relationship of the corals, and the taxonomical composition of the coral assemblage indicate that the fauna lived in a relatively turbid, restricted and eutrophic nearshore shallow marine environment.
