Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/36707

The Permian brachiopod genus Cryptospirifer, characterized by its fairly large shell size, is classified by certain Chinese palaeontologists into the Suborder Athyrididina. The category of this genus has covered the forms having both costate and non-costate shells. The authors hold a view, however, that the presence or absence of the costae is of generic importance in this case and that, accordingly, species with costate shells have to be excluded from the genus Cryptospirifer (s.s.), the designated type species of which is C. omeishanensis Huang with smooth shells. It has been so far reported that the occurrence of this genus is confined only to the Maokou of South China. The present study, however, first clarified that several shells attributable to this genus are embedded in the upper part of the Middle Permian of Central and Northwestern Iran, and Central Turkey as well. The genus Cryptospirifer viewed from the newly limited standpoint comprises three species: C. omeishanensis Huang, C. shawanensis Jing, both from South China, and C. iranica n. sp. from the Near and Middle East.