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Kilbuchophyllid corals from the Ordovician (Caradoc) of Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone: implications for coral phylogeny and for movement on the Southern Uplands Fault

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Colin T. Scrutton ,
Andrew J. Jeram  and
Howard A. Armstrong
Colin T. Scrutton
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE
Andrew J. Jeram
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast, BT9 5AB
Howard A. Armstrong
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE
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Abstract

An excavation in the mid-Ordovician (Caradoc) Bardahessiagh Formation at Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1992 has yielded a rich fauna of invertebrates, including several specimens of the scleractiniamorph coral Kilbuchophyllia. The material is assigned to the species K. clarksoni, previously described from penecontemporaneous levels in the Kirkcolm Formation of the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands. The diagnosis of K. clarksoni is extended to include specimens of significantly greater size than the Southern Uplands material. All the material is mouldic but includes composite moulds, which in comparison with the preservation of other faunal elements, strongly suggests an original aragonitic composition for the kilbuchophyllid skeleton. Furthermore, details of insertion of higher cycles of septa visible on one particularly well preserved specimen confirm the process of septal substitution in these corals. Septal substitution is otherwise unique to post-Palaeozoic scleractinian corals and indicates the presence of paired mesenteries in the kilbuchophyllid polyp. The significance of this for the evolution of these corals and related anemones is discussed. The discovery of kilbuchophyllid corals at Pomeroy supports the view that post-Caradoc sinistral strike-slip movement on the Southern Uplands Fault was unlikely to have exceeded 200 km.

Keywords

Early Palaeozoicscleractiniamorph coralsNorthern IrelandBardahessiagh FormationJunction Bedsskeletal compositionseptal substitutionCorallimorphariaActiniaria
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , 1997 , pp. 117 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1997

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