20. on the Relationship of Carboniferous Trilobites Between Australia and Eurasia'

96 Proc. Japan Acad., 54, Ser. B (1978) [Vol. 54(B),

20. On the Relationship of Carboniferous Trilobites between Australia and Eurasia'

By Teiichi KOBAYASHI, M. J. A. and Takashi HAMADA University of Tokyo

(Communicated March 13, 1978)

On the western side of the Pacific basin the rich Carboniferous fauna has long been known from Australia. As reported already, the Japanese and Southeast Asiatic trilobites attain at present 12 species and 18 species respectively. Beside a few Moscovian species are known from North and Northeast China. Therefore the comparison between the northern and southern faunas of the western Pacific and their relation to Eurasiatic and American faunas is an interesting problem. The history of research goes back in Australia as far as to McCoy in 1847, followed by Etheridge, R. sen. (1872), de Koninck (1879), Etheridge, R. Jr. (1892, 1917, MS), Reed (1913), Mitchell (1918, 1924) and so forth. In Mitchell's monograph, 1917 he noted that five out of 12 species of previous authors are recognizable as valid. In adding many new species he described 23 species of the Carboniferous trilobites of Australia among which Phillipsia connoli was a solitary Western Australian trilobite occurring in the Gascoigne River area. All others were collected from Queensland and New South Wales. Griflthides sweeti was procured at Crow's Nest Creek, near Mount Morgan, Queensland from the trilobite beds of the Permo- Carboniferous Gymie Series whose exact age is unknown. The remain- ing trilobites are Carboniferous and mostly Lower Carboniferous. None of them is known to be definitely Upper Carboniferous or Per- mian in age, although a few Permian ones were lately described from Australia and Tasmania. Recently taxonomic comments and partly chronological ones were given by Stubblefield, Osmolska, G. and R. Hahn and others on these species in the light of modern palaeontology as shown in the list in- serted here. Stubblefield (1948) and Osmolska (1970) suggested Linguaphillipsia and Weberiphillipsia respectively for the cranidium and pygidium of Phillipsia collinsi. According to her the pygidium is extremely similar to W. kirgisica. She is of opinion that there is no true Phillipsia in Australia. According to 'G, and R. Hahn (1972), however, Phillipsia rockhamptonensis has the cephalon of Phillipsia and its pygidium looks like that of Phillipsia (Elliptophillipsia).

*' Studies on Japanese Trilobites and Associated Fossils-XI. No. 3] Carboniferous Trilobites of Australia and Eurasia 97

The Carboniferous trilobites of Australia by John Mitchell, 1918 with comments by Stubblefield, Osmolska and Hahn

Further taxonomic comments were given by her on a few species among which she emphasized that Phillipsia convexicaudata should be assigned to Richterella as an approximate contemporary species to late Kinderhookian R. snakedensis Hessler, 1965. G. and R. Hahn (1972) on the other hand considered it to be a close ally to Cummin- gella. Because Phillipsia grandis is a composite species G. and R. Hahn proposed a new species, i.e. Linguaphillipsia ? magna for Etheridge's pygidium in fig. 5, pl. 21, 1892. 98 T. KOBAYASHI and T. HAMADA [Vol. 54(B),

Mitchell described in 1924 one more species, Cordania gardneri from the upper Burindi Series (Westphalian ?) in New South Wales on which Campbell and Goldring created a new genus, Australosutura (Amos et al. 1960). Additional trilobites which the authors are aware are as follows : 1) Linguaphillipsia divergens Cvancara, 1959, from the upper part of the lower Burindi Group (upper Tournaisian), New South Wales. Recently Engel and Morris (1975) described four species of Linguaphillipsia with two subspecies in L. elongata from the upper Tournaisian through the Visean in New South Wales as follows : L, raglanensis, nov. (Up. Tournais.-low. Vise., Cu ha) L. cangonensis, nov. (Late mid. Vise., Cu IIIa) L. elongata elongata (Mitchell, 1918) (Late mid. Vise., Cu IIIa) L. elongata rouchelensis (Mitchell, 1918) (Mid. Vise., Cu IIIa) L, divergens Cvancara, 1959 (Up. Vise., Cu IIh_r) 2) Conophillipsia brevicaudata Roberts,1963, from Bingleburra formation of the Burindi Group (upper Tournaisian), N.S.W. 3) Weiania goldringi Campbell and Engel, 1963, from the Tul- cumba sandstone, Kinderhookian or lower Tournaisian, N.S.W. This is the type-species of Weiania in the Cyrtosymbolinae. This genus was accepted as a subgenus of Archaeogonus by G. and R. Hahn (1969). 4) Proetus (Megaproetus) cambrerus Jell, 1977, from the upper Bridge member of Munduberra sandstone, Queensland. As summarized above, the Carboniferous trilobites of Australia attain some 30 species. Assuming the taxonomic revision, they are distributed in the following 13 genera and some subgenera including a few of doubtful reference : Brachymetopidae-Brachymetopus, Australosutura Proetinae, s,1. Proetinae-Cyrtoproetus, Proetus (Pudoproetus, Megaproetus) Cyrtosymbolinae--Weiania Phillipsiinae-Phillipsia (Phillipsia, Elliptophillipsia), Cono. phillipsia Linguaphillipsiinae-Linguaphillipsia, Weberiphillipsia Cummingellinae--Cummingella, Richterella Griflithidinae-GrifJlthidella (Gri/jiithidella) Ditomopyginae-Paladin (Paladin) Among them Proetus (Megaproetus) is a sole endemic subgenus indigenous to Queensland where it is represented only by its type- species. Brachymetopus and Paladin are on the other hand so widely distributed that they do not bear much importance for discussion on provinciality and migration. No. 3] Carboniferous Trilobites of Australia and Eurasia 99

Australosutura is an interesting genus distributed from Queen- sland and New South Wales to Oklahoma and Missouri through Argentina or the Andean route. Richterella and Phillipsia (Ellipto- phillipsia) are other taxa known from the United States of America and possibly from eastern Australia, but no intermediate link is as yet discovered between the two areas. The occurrences of W eiania, Conophillipsia and W eb eriphillipsia are recorded from eastern Australia on one side and from the Urals or/and Central Asia on the other. These two separate areas are con- nected by Cyrtoproetus, Cummingella and Linguaphillipsia which are widely distributed in Eurasia. The first genus is known from Europe to the Urals and Central Asia; the second from Europe to Central Asia and Yunnan ? and Japan ; and the third from Europe to Japan through the Urals ?, Central Asia, Turkey and Southeast Asia. These six genera are unknown from the Americas. Finally, Proetus (Pudoproetus) and Grifithidella were originally instituted in the United States and recently they were found in Japan. The latter is known further from the Altai and South Ural and the former from the Altai to the western slope of the Urals through Central Asia where it is well represented. According to G, and R. Hahn (1969) Reed's Proetus cf. coddonensis from Peninsular Thailand belongs possibly to Proetus (Pudoproetus). Recently this subgenus was found in middle Pennsylvanian of Ellesmere Island (Chamber- lain, 1977). The faunal affinity indicated by the Carboniferous trilobites of Australia is, as in the case of those of Japan (Kobayashi and Hamada, 1978), closer to European or Eurasian ones than those of North America or the Americas. As discussed in the preceding paper, the affinities of the Southeast Asiatic trilobites to those of the Japanese and the Australian ones are about the same degree. There are so many genera common between the Australian and Eurasiatic faunas. However, roughly speaking, a half is not distributed into Europe beyond the Urals. In view of the occurrences of Linguaphillipsia in Turkey and Southeast Asia the trans-Eurasiatic route of migration from North Europe to Japan in the Carboniferous period must have been the Tethyan sea, although no Lower Carboni- ferous trilobite was uncovered in the Himalayan mountains. Now it is certain that the route was trifurcated in Southeast Asia a branch of which was extending into Australia through the Burmese-Malayan geo- syncline in the early Carboniferous period. 100 T. KOBAYASHI and T. HAMADA [Vol. 54(B),

References*'

Amos, A. J., Campbell, K. S. W., and Goldring, R. (1960) : Australosutura gen. nov. (Trilobita) from the Carboniferous of Australia and Argentina. Palaeon- tology, 3(2), 227-236, pls. 39, 40. Campbell, K. S. W., and Engel, B. A. (1963) : The faunas of the Tournaisian Tulcumba Sandstone and its members of the Werrie and Belvue synclines, New South Wales. Jour. Geol. Soc. Australia, 10, 55-122, pls. 1-9. Chamberlain, C. K. (1977) : Carboniferous and Permian trilobites from Ellesmere Island and Alaska. Jour. Paleont., 31(4), 758-771, pls. 1-3. Cvancara, A. W. (1958) : Invertebrate fossils from the Lower Carboniferous of New South Wales. Ibid., 32(5), 846-888, pls. 109-113. Engel, B. A., and Morris, N. (1975) : Linguaphillipsia (Trilobita) in the Car- boniferous of eastern Australia. Senckenb. Leth., 56(2/3), 147-189. Hahn, G. and R. (1973) : Zur Evolution von Linguaphillipsia (Trilobita; Unter- Karbon). Ibid., 53(6), 479-515, pls. 1-2 Jell, P. A. (1977) : A new subgenus of Proetus (Trilobita) from the Lower Car- boniferous of Queensland. Jour. Paleont., 51(1), 169-176, 2 pls. Kobayashi, T., and Hamada, T. (1978a) : Lower Carboniferous trilobites from the Hina limestone, Okayama, West Japan. Proc. Japan Acad., 54B (1), 5-9. (1978b, c) : Advance reports on Carboniferous trilobites of Japan. I. Out- line of the trilobite fauna. II. A new subgenus and three new species. Ibid., 54B(2), 45-54. (1978d) : Three suites of Carboniferous trilobites in Southeast Asia. Ibid., 54B(3), 92-95. Mitchell, J. (1918) : The Carboniferous trilobites of Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W., 43, 437-494, pls. 46-53. (1924) : New trilobites from Bowning with notes on Encrinurus and Cordania gardneri. Ibid., 49(2),'46-54, pl. 10. Roberts, J. (1965) : A Lower Carboniferous fauna from Trevallyn, New South Wales. Palaeontology, 8(1), 54-81, pls. 1-6.

'`) See Kobayashi and Hamada , 1978d, for G. and R. Hahn, 1969, 1970, 1972; Osmolska, 1970 and Stubblefield, 1948.