A New Species of Amsassia from the Ordovician of Korea and South China:Paleobiological and Paleogeographical Significance

A new species of the probable calcareous alga Amsassia, A. koreanensis, is recognized from the Duwibong Formation （Middle Ordovician, Darriwilian） of the Taebaeksan Basin in mid-eastern Korea. This is the first report of the genus from the Korean Peninsula, expanding its geographical range to the eastern Sino-Korean Block. The new species also occurs in the Xiazhen Formation （Upper Ordovician, Katian） at Zhuzhai in the South China Block. Amsassia koreanensis is the smallest species of this modular genus, having a maximum module diameter of 0.28 ram. Module increase is by bipartite, tripartite and quadripartite types of longitudinal axial fission, but unlike other species of the genus, quadripartite fission is common. The types of fission are comparable to those in some Tetradiida （now Prismostylales, florideophycean rhodophyte algae）, although the processes of fission are different. The distribution of A. koreanensis further strengthens the biogeographical connection between the Sino-Korean and South China blocks, suggesting that these two paleocontinents were located closer together during the Middle to Late Ordovician than previously speculated.

Cambrian Stem-group Cnidarians with a New Species from the Cambrian Series 3 of the Taebaeksan Basin, Korea

Five species, Lipopora lissa Jell and Jell, 1976, Lipopora daseia Jell and Jell, 1976, Tretocylichne perplexa Engeibretsen, 1993 from Australia, Cambroctoconus orientalis Park, Woo, Lee, Lee, Lee, Han and Chough, 2011 from China, and Cambroctoconus kyrgyzstanicus Peel, 2014 from Kyrgyzstan, belonging to the Cambrian stem-group cnidarians have been documented in the fossil record. Cambroctoconus coreaensis sp. nov., interpreted here as a stem-group cnidarian, from the Seokgaejae section in the Daegi Formation, Taebaek Group （Cambrian Series 3）, Taebaeksan Basin, central-eastern Korean Peninsula, has a slender cup-shaped skeleton. A cladistic analysis produced 21 most parsimonious trees, which invariably placed the six stem-group cnidarians below the crown-group, but their relationships within the stem-group are unresolved. Nine out of the 21 trees suggest a monophyletic relationship for the Cambrian stem-group cnidarians, whereas in six other trees a monophyly of Cambroctoconus and Tretocylichne appeared as the sister-group to the crown-group cnidarians with Lipopora at the most basal branch. This result may reflect the fact that crown-group cnidarians evolved in the Precambrian, and suggests that the diversity of stem-group cnidarians was a result of an independent radiation in the Cambrian.