Article: A new upper Ordovician bryozoan fauna from the Slade and Redhill Beds, South Wales

A diverse bryozoan fauna has been discovered in South Wales in the Slade and Redhill Beds (upper Rawtheyan, Ashgill), exposed in a new road-cutting near Whitland. This is the first account of a moderately diverse Ordovician bryozoan fauna from Britain. The fauna is represented by 15 species belonging to four orders, the majority being Trepostomata. One new genus is described, Pinnatoporella (Fenestrata), and three new species Heterotrypa sladei, Dekayia pengawsensis, and Anaphragma gwyndyense (all Trepostomata). New information has led to the redescription of the cystoporate family Rhinoporidae and its reassignment to the suborder Ceramoporina. Ordovician bryozoans are poorly known in Britain, partly because well-preserved diverse faunas such as this are very rare. The fauna is compared biogeographically with previously described Bryozoa. At generic level it is cosmopolitan; however, approximately half the species are endemic to Wales. The remaining species have greatest affinity with Baltoscandia; species level affinities with North America are poorer.