A new notospiriferine genus (Spiriferida: Brachiopoda) from the Permian of Tasmania

Farmerella exoporosa gen. et sp.nov. is described from cold-water Permian (Bernacchian-Lymingtonian) rocks of Tasmania. The new taxon is essentially homeomorphic with Glendonia McClung & Armstrong, 1978. However, Glendonia possesses a micro-ornament of low, elongate microspines behind shallow, elongate grooves, whereas Farmerella gen.nov. (as in Notospirifir Harrington, 195 5) has deep, elongate and globose pits which penetrate the rhickened outer primary shell layer but not the inner shell layer. This feature suggests that Notospirifir and Farmerell.a gen.nov. are closely related and should be assigned to a separate subfamily, the Notospiriferinae Archbold & Thomas, 1986 (emended herein), and Glendonia, BirchsellaClarke, 1987 and KelsoviaClarke, 1990 to a separate subfamily, the Glendoniinae nov. The areal and stratigraphical distributions, and evolutionary relationships of the various genera are briefly discussed.