UPPER DEVONIAN BRACHIOPODS FROM THE PORT REFUGIO FORMATION, SUEMEZ ISLAND,

A brachiopod fauna from the type locality of the Port Refugio Formation on Suemez Island, 24 km south of Craig, southeastern Alaska, is described and illustrated. The fauna consists of Cyrtospirifer buddingtoni n. sp., Mucrospirifer refugiensis n. sp., Crurithyris alaskensis n. sp., Johnsonathyris adrianensis n. gen., n. sp., Cleiothyridina milleri n. sp., Rugaltarostrum congregabile n. sp., Chapinella bucareliensis n. gen., n. sp., Kindleina suemezensis n. gen., n. sp., Allorhynchoides kirki n. gen., n. sp., and Rhipidomella sp. All these species except Crurithyris alaskensis occur together in what is considered to be a single community named the Johnsonathyris Community. Crurithyris alaskensis occurs in a separate horizon, about 1.3 m above the other species. The Johnsonathyris Community consisted of epifaunal suspension feeders living on a silty calcareous substratum. A middle to late Famennian age is assigned to the fauna. Although the biogeographic affinities of the fauna seem to be mainly with North America, none of the forms is conspecific with previously described material, and the fauna is unusually provincial at a time when brachiopods were generally cosmopolitan. Some degree of isolation from other North American brachiopod faunas is indicated.