A remarkable Amgan (Middle Cambrian, Stage 5) fauna from the Sauk Tanga, Madygen region, Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Early Middle Cambrian bituminous coquinoid limestones from a tectonically isolated outcrop in southwestern Kyrgyzstan yield a remarkably diverse fauna, with stem-group cnidarians, trilobites, rhynchonelliformean brachiopods, and other shelly fossils. The fossil site is in the northern foothills of the Turkestan Range and thus forms part of the westernmost extension of the South Tien Shan. The fauna includes two fairly well known trilobite species, Glabrella ventrosa Lermontova, 1940 and Dorypyge richthofeniformis Lermontova, 1940, that provide confident support for an Amgan age of the rocks. New described taxa include the stem-group cnidarian Cambroctoconus kyrgyzstanicus Peel sp. nov., the trilobite Olenoides sagittatus Geyer sp. nov., and the helcionelloid Manasoconus bifrons Peel gen. et sp. nov. Additional fossils within the samples include the trilobites Olenoides sp. A, Kootenia sp., and Pseudoeteraspis? sp.; the rhynchonelliform brachiopods Narynella cf. ferganensis (Andreeva, 1962), Narynella? sp., Austrohedra? sp. nov., and two species of uncertain generic affinity; the tommotiid Tesella sp.; the hyolithelminth Hyolithellus sp.; and the palaeoscolecid Hadimopanella oezgueli Gedik, 1977. Of particular interest is Cambroctoconus kyrgyzstanicus with an octagonal corallum and a sparsely septate calyx.