LATE PERMIAN SPHINCTOZOANS FROM REEFAL BLOCKS OF THE BAID AREA, OMAN-MOUNTAINS

Late Permian reefal blocks exposed in the Ba'id area of the Eastern Om an Mountains yield a sphinctozoan assemblage that has not been studied previously. The sphinctozoan fauna described here is the first report of such an assemblage from the Arabian Peninsula. Approximately 70 sa mples were studied with respect to systematic paleontology, as well as frequency of taxa based on presence/absence lists. The sphinctozoans include 14 genera and 25 species. One genus (Rahbahthalamia) and five species (Amblysiphonella omanica, Salzburgia? irregularis, Welter ia? hawasinensis, Thaumastocoelia? irregularis, and Girtyocoelia gracilis) are described as new. Amblysiphonella Steinmann (1882), Colospongia L aube (1865), and Sollasia Steinmann (1882) have the highest species di versity. On a generic level, Sollasia, Amblysiphonella, and Parauvanel la Senowbari-Daryan and Di Stefano (1988) occur most frequently in the investigated samples. The described fauna exhibits close relationship s to sphinctozoan faunas known from the Middle and Late Permian of Chi na and Tunisia.