The palaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographical significance of the Late Permian deep-water brachiopod fauna from Dongpan, South China, including descriptions of Micromartinia He & Weldon gen. nov. (Micromartiniidae He & Weldon fam. nov.) and Minutomarginifera nom. nov.

A new genus and species, Micromartinia kwangsiella gen. et sp. nov., is erected based on material from the Talung Formation (upper Changhsingian), Guangxi, South China. Based on a phylogenetic analysis, the new genus is placed in a new family, Micromartiniidae He & Weldon. The genus and family are monotypic. Minutomarginifera nomen novum is proposed to replace Eileenella Racheboeuf in Wongwanich et al., 2004. Eileenella is a homonym that was first used for an insect genus. A review of the brachiopod fauna of the Talung Formation at Dongpan demonstrates that the species are highly endemic and the fauna has a strongly generic affinity with cool-water faunas outside of South China Basin. The associated fauna and facies also indicate that the Dongpan Section was deposited in a cool-water bathyal setting in the southern part (Youjiang Sub-basin) of the South China Basin. The section was linked to the open ocean in the Late Permian. Compared with the coeval faunas of Duanshan and Shaiwa in the Youjiang Sub-basin, the Dongpan brachiopod fauna was not so strongly influenced by the faunas from the adjacent carbonate platforms, because of the deeper, cool water setting which is hostile to the typical warm-water brachiopods.