Redescription of the brachiopod genus Globispirifer Tachibana, 1964 from the lowest Carboniferous of the South Kitakami Belt, NE Japan

In this paper we redescribe the early Tournaisian brachiopod genus Globispirifer based on the topotype specimens of the type species G. nagasakaensis from the basal part of the Karaumedate Formation of the Nagasaka area, South Kitakami Belt, northeast Japan. The genus Globispirifer possesses a pair of well-developed dental plates and crural plates, and thus is unsuitable for the family Martiniidae but fits well within the family Martiniopsidae. Ontogenetic variations of G. nagasakaensis exhibit the followings: (1) the shell outline is subcircular in juveniles and then becomes elongate oval in adults, (2) the dorsal fold is completely absent in juveniles, broadened and highly raised in adults, and (3) the external surfaces of both valves are generally smooth in juveniles and weakly plicated in adults.

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