Earliest Mississippian rugose corals of eastern Australia: post-disaster fauna across the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary?

The most earliest Mississippian rugose corals are post-disaster taxa occurring in a biosphere strongly modified by the crises associated with the Devonian-Carboniferous Boundary. In Western Europe, basal Tournaisian rugose corals belong to the genera Conilophyllum, Hebukophyllum and Kizilia. Conilophyllum and Hebukophyllum are either homeomorphs or close relatives of each other and are likely post-disaster fauna showing wide morphological plasticity but with an unknown origin. Kizilia is a Lazzarus taxon, known also from basal Tournaisian strata of China, that suddenly reappeared at the Devonian-Carboniferous Boundary being related to the mid-Devonian stringophyllids. The deeper basinal facies of Western Europe (Montagne Noire, Rhenish Mts, Thuringia, Upper Franconia) yield mostly small non-dissepimented solitary rugose corals, together with some dissempimented ones, amongst which are mostly long-ranging taxa. In N America, Vesiculophyllum, a genus very similar, and probably related, to Kizilia occurs together with non-dissepimented long-ranging corals. Like most of the basal Tournaisian dissepimented rugose corals, Cystodactylon orbum gen. et sp. nov. and Gudmania darumbalae gen. et sp. nov. from the basal Tournaisian of eastern Australia are interpreted as post-disaster fauna. Their origin is not understood to date and they seemingly left no descent in the Carboniferous. Their stratigraphic range is extremely limited as they so far are known only in small reefs at the base of the lower Tournaisian Gudman Formation in the type area

Taxonomy, Biostratigraphy and Palaeobiogeography of the Late Tournaisian rugose corals of north-western Turkey

This article provides the first taxonomic description of Ivorian (Late Tournaisian, Early Carboniferous) rugose coral associations from north-western Turkey (Zonguldak and Bartın). Eleven species belonging to ten genera are described, one species is new. Three biostratigraphic assemblages are recognized. The oldest assemblage includes Cyathaxonia cornu, Cyathoclisia uralensis, ‘Lophophyllum’ konincki and Uralinia multiplex. This corresponds to the RC3 Biozone (early Ivorian). The middle assemblage in characterised by Amplexus coralloides, Sychnoelasma hawbankense and Zaphriphyllum daleki sp. nov. and is correlated with the early late Ivorian RC4α Biozone. The youngest assemblage (RC4β1 Biozone, latest Ivorian) is composed of Corphalia fourmarieri, Corphalia sp. and Amydgalophyllum? sp. These three assemblages have a low specific and generic diversity compared to time-equivalent assemblages but contain genera with a wide distribution in the Palaeotethys Ocean, such as Cyathoclisia, Uralinia and—in a lesser extend—Zaphriphyllum, as well as typically European taxa such as Corphalia and Sychnoelasma. These latter two, identified for the first time outside of Europe, allow associating north-western Turkey with the European Coral Province