Early Permian corals from the Providence Mountains, San Bernardino County, California

Rugose and tabulate corals from the Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) part of the Bird Spring Group in the Providence Mountains, San Bernardino County, southeastern California, comprise eight species in eight genera. Heritschioides mckassoni n. sp. is the lowest stratigraphic record for this index genus on the undoubted shelf of western North America. Paraheritschioides applegatei n. sp. is the first record for the genus in southern California. Neomultithecopora providensis n. sp. is a second species for the genus in the southern Great Basin. The other five species provide close ties to previously described faunas from the Spring Mountains and the Arrow Canyon Range of southwestern and southeastern Nevada. The combined Wolfcampian coral faunas of these three areas are somewhat closer at the genus and species level to the McCloud Limestone Wolfcampian faunas of northern California than to the Wolfcampian shelf faunas in east-central Nevada. Additional species present in the combined faunas are known originally from the Wolfcampian of central Nevada and Kansas and a genus is not otherwise known south of British Columbia. The faunas suggest a subprovince of the Durhaminid Coral Province for the southern California and southern Nevada area and perhaps imply partial isolation from the more northerly parts of the province by land barriers such as the Antler Highlands.