Ref ID:	28444
Ref Type:	Journal Article
Authors:	Burrett, Clive Stait, Bryan
Title:	South East Asia as part of an Ordovician Gondwanaland- a palaeobiogeographic test of a tectonic hypothesis
Date:	1985
Source:	Earth and Planetary Science Letters
DOI:	10.1016/0012-821X(85)90100-1
Abstract:	The hypothesis that Thailand and Malaysia (the Sibumasu block) were adjacent to Australia in the Early Palaeozoic has been tested by an examination of the Ordovician sequences and faunas of Sibumasu and Australia. The relatively stenogeographic nautiloids of the two areas are remarkably similar and have a Simpson Index of 0.92 at the generic level. Two new genera of discosorids are restricted to the two blocks and Georgina and Mesaktoceras are found elsewhere only in Tibet. Very close affinities are also evident between the gastropod, polyplacophoran and rostroconch molluscs. The Ordovician brachiopod faunas are also very close including the genus Spanodonta. Other very close similarities are found between the Upper Cambrian trilobite faunas and the Ordovician conodonts and stromatoporoids. No Ordovician faunas younger than Upper Whiterockian were found during this study in either northern Australia or Sibumasu and a stratigraphic gap probably exists from the Upper Whiterockian to the Upper Ordovician over most of the two blocks. These remarkably close faunal similarities are good evidence in favour of the hypothesis that Sibumasu was adjacent to Australia during the Early Palaeozoic. Similarly close faunal relationships between North China, South East Asia, Tibet and Australia may also suggest close proximity of those blocks during the Early Palaeozoic.
Date Created:	1/30/2012
Volume:	75
Page Start:	184
Page End:	190