Late Cambrian brachiopods from Jingxi, Guangxi Province, South China

The brachiopod fauna of the upper Cambrian (upper Furongian) Guole Formation, northwestern Jingxi County, southwestern Guangxi Province, southern China, comprises six genera and seven species, including one new genus, three new species and two indeterminate species (Obolidae gen. et sp. indet, Acrotretidae gen. et sp. indet., Billingsella guangxiensis, B. costata sp. nov., Guoleella lata gen. et sp. nov., Palaeostrophia jingxiensis, Plectotrophia imparicostata sp. nov.). This is the first systematic description of an upper Cambrian brachiopod fauna composed mainly of calcareous-shelled individuals from China. Brachiopod and trilobite faunal analyses suggest that this fauna has a prominent North American (Laurentian) affinity. It is notably different from the coeval, lingulate-dominated brachiopod fauna of South China, particularly of the Yangtze Platform, but shares some similarity with those of the North China Platform. Preliminary analysis reveals that this brachiopod fauna, named the Billingsella-Palaeostrophia Fauna, lived in a nearshore, shallow water benthic regime with a calcareous muddy substrate.