The biogeographical distribution of Ordovician and Silurian gastropods, monoplacophorans and mimospirids has been analysed on a generic level. The dataset contains 334 genera and 2769 species, yielding 1231 records of genera with 2274 occurrences worldwide. There is a bias towards eastern Laurentia, Baltica and Perunica records. Some 53.1% of the records are Ordovician. The study demonstrates that these molluscs are well suited to being used to improve understanding of Ordovician and Silurian biogeographical provinciality. Specific points are that: a Lower Ordovician assemblage is evident in Laurentia; the fauna of the Argentinean Precordillera is Laurentian until the Darriwilian, when taxa are shared with North China; Late Silurian gastropods from the Alexander terrane (SE Alaska) are unknown in Laurentia, but support a rift origin of this terrane from NE Siberia; Perunica, Ibero-Armorica and Morocco cluster together throughout the Ordovician but Perunica and Morocco are closer; Darriwilian–Sandbian deep-water Bohemian taxa occur in Baltica; a Laurentian–Baltica proximity is unsupported until the Silurian; Siberia clusters with North China and eastern Laurentia during the Tremadocian–Darriwilian; during the Gorstian–Pridoli Siberia clusters with the Farewell and Alexander terranes; North China may have been close to Laurentia and the Argentinean margin of Gondwana; and the affinity of Tarim taxa is problematic.
Two species of Teiichispira Yochelson and Jones reported from the Early/Middle Ordovician marine deposits of the San Juan Formation in the Argentine Precordillera are described. The new species Teiichispira teresae n. sp. is a component of the Early/Middle Ordovician marine gastropod assemblage in the studied region; Teiichispira argentina (Kayser), previously known from the San Juan Formation, is described with a complete teleoconch and associated operculum. The opercula of both Teiichispira species are complete and preserved in life position associated with the shell of T. argentina. The unguiculate morphology of the operculum is here interpreted as a mechanism for increasing the shell weight and ensuring anchoring to the substrate in a more or less fixed mode of life for Teiichispira, and as protection. The new occurrence of Teiichispira provides new taxonomic data on early Paleozoic marine gastropods in Argentina and testifies to a wide paleobiogeographical distribution for the genus, restricted to tropical and subtropical regions during the Early/Middle Ordovician.
UUID: http://zoobank.org/8ee48319-b17a-4d15-a7d4-99cc9bb1dc42
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.