Guadalupian (Middle Permian) solitary rugose corals from the Degerböls and Trold Fiord formations, Ellesmere and Melville islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Abstract

The sparse, Wordian rugose coral fauna of the Degerböls and Trold Fiord formations consists exclusively of nondissepimental, solitary taxa and includes the youngest Permian corals in the Sverdrup Basin. Similar, approximately coeval, Guadalupian coral assemblages are widespread in the youngest coral-bearing deposits of the Calophyllum Province in the northern Cordilleran-Arctic-Uralian Realm. The described Sverdrup Basin fauna includes eight species (four new) belonging to the genera Allotropiochisma, Calophyllum, Euryphyllum, Lytvolasma, Soshkineophyllum and Ufimia. Revision of several previously described from East Greenland clarifies their taxonomy and emphasizes the similarity between that fauna and others in the Calophyllum Province. The distribution and relative abundance of solitary species in Svalbard, East Greenland and the Sverdrup Basin confirms the geographic proximity of those areas and open marine communication between them during Guadalupian time. Contrasting, lov diversity in the Central European Basin and the Eastern European Platform indicates scarcity of favourable marine habitats and low level of faunal exchange with the remainder of the Calophyllum Province.