Brachiopod survival and recovery from the latest Ordovician mass extinctions in South China

South China contains many complete sections through the upper Ordovician an d lower Silurian. Brachiopod data including 130 brachiopod genera, assigned to 13 orders and 27 superfamilies from mid-Ashgill through late Aeronian i ntervals reveal that brachiopod macroevolution before and after the latest Ordovician mass extinction shows important changes in the diversity, compos ition and stratigraphical distribution of the phylum. The following six int ervals are recognized: (1) a faunal plateau before the latest Ordovician ma ss extinction (mid-Ashgill, Rawtheyan); (2) a survival-recovery interval fo llowing the first phase of the mass extinction (late Ashgill, Normalograptu s extraordinarius Zone and lower Glyptograptus? persculptus Zone, Hirnantia n); (3) first survival interval following the mass extinction (latest Ashgi ll, upper Glyptograptus? persculptus Zone; end Hirnantian); (4) a second su rvival interval after the mass extinction (earliest Llandovery, Parakidogra ptus acuminatus Zone; early to mid-Rhuddanian); (5) a recovery interval in the Silurian (early to mid-llandovery; late Rhuddanian to early Aeronian); and (6) a radiation interval in the Silurian (mid-Llandovery; mid- to late Aeronian). Only near-shore, low-diversity, benthic assemblages (mainly BA2) , characterized by Ordovician relicts with a few Lazarus taxa and progenito rs, are known from the southern marginal area of the Upper Yangtze epiconti nental sea during the early to mid-Rhuddanian. They were replaced by newly established Silurian brachiopod communities (mainly BA2-3) in the late Rhud danian to early Aeronian. These are marked by many newly evolved endemic fo rms and new immigrants, expressing a clear recovery within the Brachiopoda, but the recovery interval of the major brachiopod groups was heterochronou s. In China the typical Silurian brachiopod fauna was mainly composed of in digenous Atrypida, Pentamerida and Spiriferida with stropheodontids derived from elsewhere, such as Baltica and Avalonia, two apparent refugia in the survival interval. The Atrypida was the first major group of Brachiopoda to diversity in the late Rhuddanian. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Lt d.