Hiller, N. (1994). The environment, biogeography, and origin of the southern African recent brachiopod fauna. Journal of Paleontology. 68(4): 776-786.

450697

Hiller, N.

1994

68(4): 776-786

Publication

Available for editors   [request]

ABSTRACT-The brachiopod fauna that presently lives in the seas off the coasts of Namibia, South Africa, and southern Mo9ambique comprises 35 named plus seven unnamed species belonging to 26 genera, making it one of the most diverse in the world. Within the fauna are some species that are confined to the warm waters of the east coast, some that are restricted to the cold west waters, and others that enjoy a more widespread distribution. The geographic distribution of species is believed to be controlled the two major oceanographic systems operating off southern Africa, namely, the Agulhas Current on the east and the Benguela Upwelling System on the west. Among the species that live off the west and south coasts are many that appear to have evolved in situ during times of pronounced environmental stress since the late Miocene. The fauna living off the east coast shows strong similarity with others in the Ocean and it is inferred that many of the species migrated into the South African region by way of the ocean current systems were established by the mid-Pliocene. Descriptions of Xenobrochus naudei and the previously undescribed Argyrotheca sp. and Amphithyris cf. A. richardsonae provided.

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