Lopingian (Late Permian) brachiopods from the Qubuerga Formation at the Qubu section in the Mt. Qomolangma region, southern Tibet (Xizang), China

Forty-one species belonging to thirty identified genera and two unindentifiable genera of Lopingian (Late Permian) brachiopods are described from the Qubuerga Formation at the Qubu section in the Mt. Qomolangma region of southern Tibet. The Qubu brachiopod fauna is subdivided into two assemblages. The lower part of the Qubuerga Formation with the Neospirifer (Neospirifer) kubeiensis-Chonetinella unisulcata Assemblage is Wuchiapingian in age. The middle part of the Qubuerga Formation with the Biplatyconcha grandis-Quinquenella semiglobosa Assemblage is considered to be essentially Wuchiapingian in age but may be in part as young as early Changhsingian (Late Lopingian). The overlying upper part of the Qubuerga Formation has yielded no brachiopods but contains a few bivalves, and is probably Changhsingian in age. It is conformably overlain by the Tulong Formation bearing Otoceras at the base, a key index fossil of the earliest Triassic. The brachiopod assemblages are correlated with those from the Selong Group at the Selong Xishan section in Nyalam of southern Tibet, the Middle and Upper Manzongrong Formations in Zanda, southwestern Tibet, the Senja Formation in northwest Nepal, the Upper Wargal and Chhidru Formation in the Salt Range, Pakistan, the middle and upper parts of the Zewan Formation in Kashmir and the Cherrabun Member of the Hardman Formation, Western Australia. Newly named taxa are Sulcirugaria tibetensis n. sp., Etherilosia convexa n. sp., Megasteges geniculatus n. sp., Taeniothaerus qubuensis n. sp., Magniplicatina gigantea n. sp., Aurilinoproductus alatus n. gen. et sp., Spiriferella subsalteri n. sp., Hoskingia qomolangmaensis n. sp. and Occidalia n. sp. © 2003 E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.