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Abstract Cambrian–Ordovician sponge-microbial mounds in the Great Basin of the western USA reveal reef structure and composition immediately prior to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE). Here we describe lithistid sponge-microbial reefs from the upper Cambrian (Furongian, Stage 10) strata of the Arrow Canyon Range, Nevada. The reefs are mound-like structures up to 1 to 2 m high and a few meters wide that consist of an unidentified thin-walled, bowl-shaped anthaspidellid sponge, columnar microstromatolite fabric, and the calcified microbe Angusticellularia. The reefs formed in low-energy, subtidal environments in which lime mud filled spongocoels and inter-reef spaces around undisturbed, in place, thin-walled sponges. The reefs colonized stable substrates provided by oolitic and bioclastic grainstone shoals. The mutually attached lithistid sponges form the main framework of the reefs. These thin-walled and bowl-shaped lithistids most likely were adapted to low-energy environments. Spaces beneath the overhanging sponge walls were filled by microbial carbonates. These include pendent micro-dendritic Angusticellularia attached to dermal sponge surfaces and upward-growing masses of microstromatolites. After death the lithistid spongocoels were mainly filled by micritic sediment that hosted soft-bodied burrowing organisms and keratose-like sponges. These lithistid sponge-microbial reefs, together with an earlier example of late Cambrian (Paibian) dendrolite-lithistid reefs in the same area, characterize skeletal-microbial reefs immediately prior to the GOBE. Highlights • Lithistid sponges formed reef frameworks in the upper Cambrian of Nevada, USA. • Reefs dominated by thin-walled sponges developed under low-energy conditions. • Spaces beneath the overhanging sponge walls were filled by microbial carbonates. • In the Great Basin, gradual reef transition occurred across Cambro-Ordovician boundary. • Regional disparities in reef evolution pattern during early stage of the GOBE are recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new kirkocystid mitrate stylophorans (Echinodermata, Homalozoa) and a new possible solute (Echinodermata, Homalozoa) are described from the Early Ordovician of the western United States. The mitrates are among the earliest members of their clade to appear near the beginning of the Ordovician Radiation. Anatifopsis ninemilensis new species comes from the Ninemile Shale in central Nevada and the McKelligon Canyon Formation in west Texas. Anatifopsis fillmorensis new species comes from the middle Fillmore Formation in western Utah and a Ninemile Shale equivalent limestone bed in southern Nevada. The possible solute Drepanocystis dubius new genus new species from the lower Wah Wah Limestone in western Utah, shows unusual morphology with an elongate theca and a long arm shaped like a sickle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]