EVOLUTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE PRODUCTELLIDAE (PRODUCTIDA), UPPER PALEOZOIC BRACHIOPODS

In the Lower Devonian the first productellids evolved from their chone tidine ancestors as the Productellinae. This subfamily was the stem gr oup from which all the later Productidina evolved, yet three of its fi ve subfamilies persisted to the end of the Permian. The main character s used in the new classification, here presented, for the Productellid ae are described and reviewed, and the main changes seen during its ev olution are discussed. Within this new classification five new genera are described: in the Overtoniinae are Barunkhuraya Lazarev from the l atest Famennian, Onavia Lazarev from the Tournaisian, both from Mongol ia, and Echinariella Lazarev (type species Krotovia jisuensiformis Sar ycheva) from the late Permian of Transcaucasia; in the Marginiferinae there is Breileenia Brunton from the Visean of western Europe and in t he Plicatiferinae is Maemia Lazarev from the mid and Upper Carbonifero us on the coast of the Barents Sea. New species described in these gen era are Barunkhuraya indrengynensis Lazarev, Onavia barunkhurensis Laz arev, Breileenia radiata Brunton, Maemia chaykensis Lazarev, and M. na na Lazarev.