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A new Middle Permian locality in northern Johore, Peninsular Malaysia, yields a smallsized, but compositionally unique, brachiopod fauna consisting of eight species: Pseudoleptodus sp., Caricula cf. salebrosa Grant, Neochonetes (Nongtaia) aff. arabicus (Hudson & Sudbury), Karavankina sp., Transennatia cf. insculpta (Grant), Hustedia sp., Orthothetina sp., and martiniid indet. The first four genera are new records for Malaysia; in particular, the rare taxa Pseudoleptodus and Caricula characterize the fauna. The brachiopods occur together with the ammonoid Agathiceras sp., the nautiloid Foordiceras? sp., bivalves, and crinoid stems. The locality belongs to the East Malaya terrane of the Cathaysian biotic region, but some affinities to species of the Sibumasu province are recognized. The Malaysian forms of Pseudoleptodus, Caricula and Transennatia are similar to those of the Ratburi Limestone (southern Thailand). A Roadian-early Wordian age is interpreted for the Johore fauna. The similarity of brachiopods reported here with those from the Ratburi Limestone suggests that there was species interchange or one-way migration between shallow waters of East Malaya and Sibumasu across the main Palaeo-Tethys. The Tethyan seaway between the two terranes must have been narrower than previously interpreted by some authors to allow such faunal traffic during the Roadian-Wordian time period. Keywords: Permian, Malaysia, brachiopods, palaeobiogeography.

Malayacyclus terengganuensis, a new genus and species of the Cyclida (Crustacea), is reported from the Early Carboniferous (Visean) of Terengganu, eastern Peninsular Malaysia (East Malaya Block). The new genus possesses diagnostic features of both families Cyclidae and Americlidae. Plus, it develops the trifurcate posterior spines: a unique morphology that was not previously known for any cyclidan genera. Based on the possession of an anterior rostrum and optic notches, it is tentatively included in the Americlidae. This represents the first find of the Cyclida from Southeast Asia and the second from the Carboniferous of Asia (eastern Tethys). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lower Setul Limestone in the Langkawi Islands of Peninsular Malaysia is well known for its continuous succession for most of the Ordovician Period. It is part of an extensive carbonate platform in the West Malaya (=Sibumasu) Block that is considered to have been in low-latitude, northern Gondwana during the early Palaeozoic. Highly endemic cephalopods belonging to the two orders Orthocerida and Pseudorthocerida occur in the late Floian–early Sandbian (late Early–early Late Ordovician) sections of this limestone. Based on some 170 shells collected, 10 species out of six genera were identified: the four orthocerids, Malayorthoceras gracilentum gen. et sp. nov., Tofangoceras kedahense sp. nov., Tofangoceras staiti sp. nov. and Tofangoceras rayense sp. nov.; and the six pseudorthocerids, Andamanoceras densiseptum gen. et sp. nov., Langgunites mucronulatus gen. et sp. nov., Shanthaiceras amplum gen. et sp. nov., Sibumasuoceras langkawiense (Kobayashi, 1959), Sibumasuoceras kilimense sp. nov. and Sibumasuoceras scrivenori sp. nov. Tofangoceras, a typical Darriwilian–Sandbian element of the North China Platform, was found also to be abundant and diverse in the coeval strata of Malaysia. All of the Langkawi pseudorthocerids belong to Greenlandoceratidae, an ill-defined familial group that is here reviewed and emended comprehensively. The Greenlandoceratidae are the oldest Pseudorthocerida and occur predominantly in both South-East Asia and North China. Langgunites mucronulatus from the Floian is the earliest species of Pseudorthocerida and possesses some primitive features of the order. The poorly understood origin of Pseudorthocerida is revisited. Pseudorthocerida is traditionally believed to have split off from Orthocerida; however, we suggest an alternative view that it derived from a stock of Protactinoceratidae (order Plectoronocerida). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nine species of late Pridoli (latest Silurian) orthocerid cephalopods are described from the Upper Setul Limestone of Pulau Langgun, Langkawi Islands, Malaysia. These are the orthoceratidsMichelinoceras(Michelinoceras) cf.michelini(Barrande, 1866),Michelinoceras? sp.,Kopaninoceras setulensesp. nov.,Mimogeisonoceras?langgunensesp. nov.,Kionoceras? sp. andOrthocyclocerassp.; the arionoceratidsArionoceras mahsurisp. nov. andCaliceras mempelamensesp. nov.; and the geisonoceratidMurchisoniceras? sp. This is the first detailed record with taxonomic descriptions of Silurian cephalopods from Southeast Asia. The assemblage belongs to the newly definedKopaninocerasFauna that is interpreted to have been widely distributed along the northern (African to Asian) margin of Gondwana and around the Prototethys Ocean during the late Silurian. TheKopaninocerasFauna includes a local assemblage from the Kurosegawa Belt of south-west Japan, which possibly represents its northernmost occurrence. The distribution of theKopaninocerasFauna implies that the cephalopod faunas of Kazakhstan and adjacent areas in Central Asia have closer affinities with peri-Gondwanan faunas than with Baltica or Siberia, corroborating conclusions drawn by earlier researchers based on the benthic faunas. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DDE20872-C142-4B78-B5F2-2E604C3C8689 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]