Late Permian conchostracans (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) from continental deposits in the Moscow Syneclise, Russia

Abstract

© 2018, The Paleontological Society. The Moscow Syneclise on the East European Platform is an important area for the study of the continental biota of late Permian to Early Triassic age in continuous sections. This study attempts a taxonomic description of the late Permian conchostracan fauna of this area. The rich, new material was collected, bed by bed, during geological and paleontological excavations of lacustrine and fluvial deposits of the Obnora Formation and Vokhma Formation of the late Permian Zhukovian Regional Stage near the towns of Vyazniki and Gorokhovets. The conchostracan fauna of the Zhukovian Regional Stage consists predominantly of Pseudestheria and less frequently of Palaeolimnadiopsis. In the earliest Triassic Vokhmian Regional Stage, a more diverse fauna including Euestheria, Magniestheria, Cornia, Palaeolimnadiopsis, and Rossolimnadiopsis was already recorded. The preliminary taxonomic determination of the pseudestheriids from the Zhukovian Regional Stage is intended to serve as a prerequisite for future studies of late Permian conchostracan biostratigraphy on the regional to interregional scale.