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Famennian crinoids and blastoids (Echinodermata) from Mongolia

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Abstract

Herein we report on the most abundant and diverse fauna of Palaeozoic crinoids and blastoids collected from Mongolia to date. The fauna is from the Late Devonian (Famennian) Samnuuruul Formation in western Mongolia. The fauna consists of two genera of blastoids and twelve genera of crinoids—four genera of camerates, three genera of flexibles, one disparid genus, and four genera of cladids. The crinoids and blastoids were living on an active island arc complex in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) in a high physical stress environment with frequent and often voluminous pyroclastic eruptions. The Mongolian fauna is similar to coeval faunas collected from the Hongguleleng Formation in western China and supports the hypothesis that the CAOB was a biodiversity hotspot for Famennian echinoderms and a precursor to the very successful echinoderm communities that dominated Mississippian shallow-marine ecosystems globally. Three new taxa are described. Mongoliacrinus minjini, new genus and species, is the oldest member of the Acrocrinidae, previously known from the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian and the first occurrence of the family outside North America. Eutaxocrinus ariunai and Eutaxocrinus sersmaai are new species of the flexible crinoid Eutaxocrinus, a genus with a widespread distribution during the Early and Middle Devonian, which survived into the Lower Mississippian. It is restricted to the CAOB in the Late Devonian.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the entire Mongolian team for their tremendous support in preparing the expedition and facilitating our time in the field under difficult circumstances. O. Pascall and A. Dombrowski were instrumental in preparing the structural map of the locality and measuring the stratigraphic section. J. A. Waters and S. K. Carmichael received support from National Geographic (CP-113R-17) and Appalachian State University. P. Königshof received funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG-KO-1622/19-1). M. Ariuntogos received funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD, Research Grant—Doctoral Programe in Germany, September 1, 2018–September 1, 2021; 57381412). This paper is a contribution to IGCP Project 652 (Reading geologic time in Paleozoic rocks: the need for an integrated stratigraphy [2017–2021]). The manuscript was significantly improved by reviews by J. E. Bauer and an anonymous reviewer.

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  1. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, 28006, USA

    J. A. Waters & S. K. Carmichael

  2. Houston, Texas, USA

    J. W. Waters

  3. Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany

    P. Königshof & M. Ariuntogos

  4. Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Baga toiruu, Sukhbaatar District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

    M. Ariuntogos

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This is a contribution to a special series on The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) during Late Devonian: new insights from southern Mongolia.

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Waters, J.A., Waters, J.W., Königshof, P. et al. Famennian crinoids and blastoids (Echinodermata) from Mongolia. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 101, 725–740 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-020-00450-3

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