The first Lower Palaeozoic fauna proved from South Africa

Tectonic evolution of the Cape and Karoo basins of South Africa

“…Its transition is the thin Soom shale, an Hirnantian Lagerstä tte with exceptional soft-tissue preservation of marine shelly fossils Aldridge et al, 2001). The upper Cedarberg mudstone that forms the regional marker contains a low-diversity brachiopod fauna (Rust, 1967;Cocks et al, 1970). The importance of the Cedarberg mudstone marker is that it represents a brief respite (<5 Ma) from the Peninsula style of subsidence.…”

The Cape Basin, South Africa: A review

“…The basal portion (Soom Member) consists of a black thinly-laminated shale which is overlain by a succession of lighter-coloured mudrocks, siltstones and sandstones (Disa Member). The Disa Member contains a fossil brachiopod assemblage, including the genera ?Plectoglossa, Trematis, Orbiculoidea, Marklandella, Eostropheodonta, and Plectothyrella (Cocks et al, 1970).…”

New evidence on the South African Lower Palaeozoic: age and fossils reviewed

“…The Table Mountain Group underlying the Bokkeveld was thought barren, and by inference also to be Devonian age, until the discovery by Rust in 1965 of a shelly fauna subsequently assessed to be close to the Ordovician-Silurian boundary in age (Cocks et al 1970) in the Cedarberg Formation within the Table Mountain Series and about 1000 m beneath the top of the Series. Since then another fauna, consisting chiefly of trilobites, has been found and briefly reported (Moore & Marchant, 1981), and work has also been done on the chitinozoa (Cramer, Rust & Cramer, 1974) and the spore content (Gray, Theron & Boucot, 1986).…”