Late Late Cambrian trilobites from near Birch Inlet, south-western Tasmania

The first late Late Cambrian basinal-facies trilobites to be described from Tasmania are from a succession exposed 85 km west of Birch Inlet, south-we stern Tasmania. Twenty-one taxa are described; the six agnostoid species in clude a new: species of Leiagnostus, L. inletensis. The polymeroids include five new species: Hedinaspis uniformis, Proceratopyge longa, Niobella birc hensis, Skljarella expansa and Ivshinaspis reticulata. Skljarella and Ivshi naspis are described for the first time from Australia. The specimens are p reserved in siltstone belonging to a basinal facies; the fauna has more in common with those of the South-Fast China Faunal Province than with the sha llow-water carbonate-facies faunas from northern Australia. The fauna is of late Late Cambrian age (Payntonian-earliest Datsonian) on the north Austra lian biostratigraphic scale. The Birch Inlet fauna is correlated with those of the Siyangshan Formation of Zhejiang, the Guoziguonen Formation of Xinj iang and the Shengjiawan Formation of Hunan. There are similarities with la te Late Cambrian faunas from Nevada, Kazakhstan and New Zealand.