(2UU] ) The Cenozoic Brachiopoda of the Bremer and Eucla Basins, southwest Western Australia R. S. Craig c/o Western Australian Museum, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia
[email protected] Abstract - The brachiopod fauna from the Late Eocene Bremer Basin and Middle Eocene to Pliocene Eucla Basin are described. Nineteen species have been recorded from the six major deposits in the two basins. Two new species, Terebratlllina christopheri and Liothyrella labia ta, are described. Two described species are re assigned from Terebratllla to Liothyrella: T. blllbosa (Tate, 1880) and T. sllbcamea (Tate, 1880). The close relationship between the species found in the basins and those found in Late Eocene to Miocene deposits in south eastern Australia is examined. The later appearance of species in eastern South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania may well accord with the separation of Australia from Antarctica. The relationship between genera in Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica is also examined with implications for the evolution of Southern Hemisphere Brachiopoda. INTRODUCTION Werillup Formation and is a yellow-white friable The brachiopods described herein from the bryozoan limestone. It is best exposed at the Bremer Basin and Eucla Basins in the southern Nanarup Lime Quarry. Quilty (1981) suggested margins of Western Australia. that, due to the lack of sorting and presence of complete echinoids and articulated brachiopods, Stratigraphy of Bremer Basin (Figure 1) current activity was negligible at the time of The Plantagenet Group of the Bremer Basin in the deposition. He further suggested that from the south-west of Western Australia extends from spatial distribution of the limestone immediately North Walpole to east of Esperance.