Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia (Research in Paleontology and Stratigraphy) vol. 125(3): 735-759. November 2019 PRAGIAN-EMSIAN BRACHIOPODS FROM THE RHENISH MASSIF (GERMANY): NEW DATA ON EVOLUTION AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHY ULRICH JANSEN Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main. E-mail:
[email protected] To cite this article: Jansen U. (2019) - Pragian-Emsian brachiopods from the Rhenish Massif (Germany): new data on evolution and biostrati- graphy. Riv. It. Paleont. Strat., 125(3): 735-759. Keywords: Lower Devonian; palaeontology; biodiversity; palaeoenvironment; Strophomenida; Orthotetida; Orthida. Abstract. The succession of Pragian to Emsian (Early Devonian) brachiopod faunas from the Rhenish Massif (Germany) is briefly reviewed and interpreted with reference to a changing palaeoenvironment. A series of bioevents caused partial extinction or emigration of brachiopod species and succeeding immigration and dispersal of new spe- cies and speciation. The interplay of sea-level fluctuations, subsidence history and siliciclastic input from the Old Red Continent triggered the specific suitability of potential brachiopod habitats on the Rhenish Shelf. Three new taxa are proposed: Fascistropheodonta? wiltzensis n. sp., Ingentistrophia gen. n. and Pachyschizophoria amygdalina n. sp. INTRODUCTION account of all previously described taxa and, in so far as necessary, introduction of new ones. The Brachiopods are abundant and diverse fossils stratigraphic interval considered in the present work in the Pragian to Emsian successions of the Rhen- concentrates on middle and upper parts of the suc- ish Massif (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge, Germany). cession. It starts with the upper Gedinnian to lower Hundreds of species of Rhenish brachiopods have Siegenian succession of the ‘Rhenish Gap’ sensu been described since the beginning of the nine- stricto (Jansen 2016) corresponding to non-marine, teenth century (e.g., von Schlotheim 1813, 1820; deltaic and restricted marine palaeoenvironments.