LATE ORDOVICIAN BRACHIOPODS FROM TAIMYR, ARCTIC RUSSIA, AND THEIR PALEOGEOGRAPHIC SIGNIFICANCE

Diverse brachiopod faunas are recorded and partly described from the K orotkinskaya Formation of the central Taimyr Peninsula, northern Siber ia, Russia. The lowest fauna (Beds 2 and 3) includes eight species of indeterminate late Ordovician age, the main fauna (Bed 4) consists of 39 species of mid Ashgill age, and the highest fauna (Beds 8 and 9), f our species of late mid Ashgill age. The new species Amphiplecia bonda revi, Cyclospira orbus, Eospirigerina vetusta and Plectatrypa laticost ata are described. Close links are drawn with the brachiopod fauna of the Boda Limestone (middle Ashgill) of Dalarna, Sweden, including the identification from Taimyr of forms hitherto considered typical of Dal arna. There are no comparable faunas from rocks of the same age on the now adjacent Siberian Platform. These data strengthen the case for th e Taimyr Peninsula forming part of the palaeocontinent of Baltica duri ng the late Ordovician.