Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the Cryptospirifer Fauna(Middle Permian Brachiopods) in the Tethyan Realm and Its Paleogeographic Implications

The middle Permian Cryptospirifer fauna (brachiopod) has hitherto been found in more than 30 localities in the Yangtze Platform, South China. Examination of data from various localities shows that it occurs stratigraphically in three intervals in the range from the upper Kungurian to Wordian.In the Baoshan block in western Yunnan the fauna occurs in the basal part of the Daaozi Formation and is of possibly an early Wordian age. Outside China the Cryptospirifer fauna has been reported from central and northwest Iran and central Turkey, where the fauna may have an age around the Wordian\Capitanian boundary. Rapid global warming since the late Early Permian and possession of other suitable environmental factors such as proper substrate, clastic input and water depth enabled the Gondwana-derived Baoshan Block and related tectono-stratigraphic units in Iran and Turkey to host the Cryptospirifer fauna, a fauna evolved in the Yangtze Platform that is a type area of the Cathaysian province.