Bull. nat. Hist. Mus. Lond. (Geol.)52(1): 51-59 
Issued 27 June 1996 
A new protorichthofenioid brachiopod 
(Productida) from the Upper Carboniferous of 
the Urals, Russia 
C.H.C. BRUNTON 
Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD 
Synopsis. A new genus from the mid Upper Carboniferous of the southern Urals, Russia, is described and interpreted as 
a surprising, aspinose early form of the Richthofenioidea. An undescribed Proteguliferina? from the Upper 
Carboniferous of northern Spain and two previously described Permian Russian species are possibly congeneric, but 
thereafter the stock probably died out. The new genus Za/vera contains the new species Z. sibaica, specimens from Spain 
and the two described Permian species. 
INTRODUCTION 
In 1982 Dr S. S. Lazarev, of the Palaeontological Insitute, 
Moscow, led an expedition to the southern Urals where 
brachiopods were collected and passed to me for comment and 
description. The brachiopods include seven taxa which can be 
assigned to productid families with little difficulty. However, 
most specimens belong to a distinctive species which initially 
_ was difficult to identify, even at phylum level. It now seems 
| clear that these subconical, thin-shelled specimens also belong 
within the Productida, although they display bizarre 
_ characteristics. 
| 
| 
| Material 
| The material was all collected from a dense, finely-grained 
| buff-coloured limestone within the Kordailovskaya Formation 
_ (probably equivalent to the Verejan Horizon in the Moscow 
| area) dated as late Bashkirian to Lower Moscovian (mid Upper 
| Carboniferous) and occurring at the Sibay stream, on the left 
bank of the Ural River, 6 km up-stream from Pokrovka, in the 
southern Urals, Russia. The fragments containing brachiopods 
amount to about 40 in total, several being multi-parts and 
counterparts of larger pieces that have been broken down to 
between 20 and 50mm in greatest dimension. Some pieces 
include more than one brachiopod specimen. 
From the total of 40 fragments, about half contain the 
unusual subconical species. Of the rest: 
1. Four contain a species reaching about 15mm in length, with 
fine spines, densely covering the ventral valve only, but with 
dorsal valve dimples, and having a low lateral profile. 
Superficially the species resembles Stipulina (Fig. 1). 
| 2. Eleven contain a Thomasella-like species, but differ in the 
| absence of rugae over the spinose body region and in having a 
| __ relatively more strongly ribbed and flanged trail (Figs 2 and 
3): 
| 3. Two contain small (ca. 7mm wide) specimens more like 
| Thomasella than the above in that they are distinctly rugose 
up to the start of the flange (Fig. 4a, b). 
| ©The Natural History Museum, 1996 
4. One part and counterpart contains a strongly rugose species 
(only ca. 9mm wide) resembling a small plicatiferid, but with 
a widely flanged and ribbed trail (Fig. 5). 
5. There are two incomplete specimens of a rugose and less 
clearly ribbed (reticulate) species with spines near the umbo 
and on the ventral exterior which resembles Pectenoproductus 
proprius Likharev, a species reported from the Lower 
Permian of the Caucasus. Muir-Wood & Cooper (1960) were 
unsure as to whether this genus was a pectinid mollusc, but 
the presence of spines on these two specimens confirms their 
affinity with the Productidina (Fig. 7). 
6. There is one incomplete ventral exterior, seen also in section, 
of a deep bodied, small, rounded species apparently lacking 
rugae or ribs, but with relatively stout spines, which 
somewhat resembles a Lower Carboniferous leiproductid, 
such as genus Magnumbonella Carter (Fig. 7). 
7. Two specimens like the conical shells described below have 
variably developed radial ribs, starting within 5 mm of the 
apex and with a low profile. The cone apex seems to have 
some attachment spines and others are arranged widely on 
the cone. The species resembles Planispina armata (Girty) 
from the mid Carboniferous of the USA (Fig. 8). 
8. There are, in addition, two pieces of a strongly ribbed 
thynchonellid and a _ section through a _ probable 
reticulariacean. 
These identifiable productids may prove to be new taxa. 
However, this paper deals only with the more common (ie. in the 
collection at hand) subconical species. Of these 25 fragments, 21 
are of the subconical valve while four include separate parts of 
what is clearly a different valve and is interpreted as the second 
valve of the same species. 
