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The palaeocontinent Laurentia experienced pulses of major marine transgression during the Late Ordovician (Katian) and was covered by extensive equatorial to subtropical epicontinental seas. Brachiopods that evolved in the newly created habitats showed increasingly strong endemism from the early to late Katian. At the faunal level, the Laurentian epicontinental brachiopod (LEB) fauna became ubiquitous in the epicontinental seas, with a high level of generic homogeneity but little in common with the coeval faunas in other palaeotropically located tectonic plates. At the level of species distribution, there was limited mixing between palaeoequatorial intracratonic basins and higher tropical to subtropical pericratonic shelves within Laurentia by late Katian. This was demonstrated by the palaeogeographical distribution of several species lineages and morphological clines along latitudinal and other ecological gradients. Such a high level of endemism suggests an extreme specialization of the LEB fauna in the tropical epicontinental seas, which made it most vulnerable to the drastic climate change and mass extinction during the Hirnantian glaciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination of topotype material of the type species of Dalmanella, D. testudinaria, from the Hirnantian strata of Borenshult, southern Sweden, revealed several diagnostic characters that distinguish the type species from some common North American species assigned previously to the genus. The typical Dalmanella testudinaria has a consistently developed, primary medial interspace in the dorsal valve, a cardinal process with an invariably bilobed myophore, punctae of two distinctly different sizes, and a lack of aditicules. In contrast, many Late Ordovician species from North America, such as 'Dalmanella' meeki and 'Dalmanella' multisecta from the Cincinnati type area, consistently have a dorsal medial costa, with a strong tendency to develop aditicules and a trilobate cardinal process. This study confirms the previous notion of many authors that true Dalmanella testudinaria, or the genus as a whole, is either rare or entirely absent in North America. Typical Dalmanella was predominant in cool-water depositional environments (such as the Hirnantia Fauna), whereas the North American dalmanellids (e.g. Cincinnati-type 'Dalmanella', Paucicrura, and Diceromyonia) were most abundant and diverse in tropical, epicontinental sea settings. A clear definition of the true Dalmanella, therefore, has important implications for the study of Late Ordovician-Early Silurian brachiopod evolution, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]