The species of the brachiopod genus Terebratella d'Orbigny, which does not correspond to any one reported hitherto from the upper Eocene-? lower Oligocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, West Antarctica but showing a strong affinity to the Recent T. inconspicua (Sowerby), is described.
Epifaunal organisms (bryozoans, foraminifera, serpulid polychaetes, cirripeds, octocorals), scratch marks and borings (brachiopod pedicle attachment traces and gastropod, phoronid, sponge and algal boreholes) were recognized on the brachiopod shells from the Eocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. They are rare and occur only on about 10% of shells. It is probable that environmental conditions were not suitable for epibionts whose requirements were to be higher than those of brachiopods. The rarity of epifauna on the dead shells can be explained by their rapid burial.
A small collection of discinids from Spitsbergen includes two poorly preserved fragments of ventral valves with an incomplete pedicle disc bearing a narrowly trigonal pedicle tract. This element is similar to the type known in Recent discinids. Its general size, comparatively large, is suggestive of a wide embayment of the larval ventral valve. A new species Discinisca spitsbergensis sp. n. is proposed.
Productacean brachiopod assemblages are described from 10 taphocoenoses from various facies of the Upper Permian Kapp Starostin Formation in Spitsbergen. Time and space relationships among the investigated phena are based upon a previously established chronostratigraphic correlation of the strata. 15 productacean species are distinguished, based upon analysis of their morphology and ecology. Their paleontological descriptions take into account the ranges of their ecophenotypic variation. Shells adapted to three modes of life are recognized among the considered Productacea: (1) forms stabilizing within loose bottom sediments, (2) forms floating at the surface of soft substrates, and (3) forms living just below the surface of quaggy substrates. Distribution of the productacean assemblages in the Kapp Starostin Formation is analyzed within the framework of a reconstruction of the history of the Permian sea in this area. The main ecological controls upon this distribution include stratification of the water, substrate suitability for settlement, and coastal influences on the marine environment. Because of their spatially limited distribution and unrecognized evolution within the considered time interval, the investigated brachiopods cannot be employed for biochronostratigraphy.
Brachiopods are reported for the first time from the Lower Miocene Cape Melville Formation of King George Island, South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica. Two genera, Liothyrella Thomson and Paraldingia Richardson have been identified. This is the first occurrence of Paraldingia in Antarctica.
Brachiopods from the Chlamys Ledge Member, uppermost part of the Polonez Cove Formation (Oligocene), of King George Island, West Antarctica are represented by the undeterminable Rhynchonellida, one short-looped terebratulide Liothyrella Thomson, and two long-looped terebratellidines: Rhizothyris Thomson and Terebratelloidea gen. et sp. indet. Liothyrella is a well known genus in the Cenozoic strata and Recent waters of the Southern Hemisphere, while Rhizothyris is noted for the second time in the Antarctic region. This is the first record of brachiopods from the Chlamys Ledge Member.