THE LOWER PERMIAN SMALLER FORAMINIFERAL FAUNA FROM ZHANGPING,FUJIAN

The Lower Permian is well developed and widespread in Zhangping district of Fujian. Based on the vertical distribution of the smaller fora- minifers, the Early Permian foraminifer-bearing limestone may be divided into three smaller foraminiferal assemblages:Geinitzina-Pachyphloia Assemblage,Langella-Pseudoglandulina longa Assemblage, Hemigordius qinglongensis-Cribrogerina celebrata Assemblage. These three assemblages were first discovered in Fujian, which provides new evidence for dating the Lower Permian strata in this region.1.Geinitzina-Pachyphloia Assemblage This assemblage consists of 16 species belonging to 8 genera and is characterized by Geinitzina and Pachyphloia. Relevant species of Geinitzina, Pachyphloia, Nodosaria, and Pseudoglandulina belong to the typical member of the Permian, such as Geinitzina postcarbonica Spandel, G.cf.pusilla Grozdilov, G.linguliformis Lipina, Pachyphloia cf.paraovata K.M.Maclay,P.cf. laxa Lin, Nodosaria xintanensis Lin,N.mirabilis Lipina, N.cf.wjatkensis Tcherdynzev,N. concinna Potievskaya, N.parva Lipina, and Pseudoglandulina fallax (Tcherdynzev).In addition to the members mentioned above, the species with long geological ranges such as Eotuberina reiflingerae A.D.M.Maclay, Palaeotextularia simplex Morozova, P.gibbosaeformis (Reitlinger),Cribrogenerina cf.permica Lange, Plectogyra sp. are also present. In Zhangping of Fujian, this assemblage occures in the Gaodi and Liangshan formations of the bottom part of the Lower Permian, corresponding to the Schwagerina cushmani Zone,and is probably the lowest smaller foraminiferal assemblage in this region.2. Langella-Pseudoglandulina longa Assemblage This assemblage containing 9 species belonging to 5 genera is in the Lower part of the Chihsia Formation and roughly corresponds to the Misellina claudiae Zone. In this assemblage Langella is the dominant member with 3 species making up 45% of the total species, and chiefly exists in the middle and upper parts of the Chihsia Stage in South China, such as Langella pulchra (Lange), L.varibilis Lin, Li et Sun and L.wufengensis Lin, Li et Sun, associated with Palaeotextularia simplex Morozova, Tetrataxis angusta Vissarionova, T.bella Lin,Geinitzina cf.uralica Suleinova, G.uralica simplex K.M.Maclay and Pseudoglandulina longa K.M.Maclay.3. Hemigordius qinglongensis-Cribrogenerina celebrata Assemblage The members of the smaller foraminifers in the assemblage were very peculiar, most of which belong to the Family Palaeotextulariidae, such as Cribrogenerina celebrata Lin, Li et Sun,C. cf.nana Li, Palaeotextularia angusta (Reitlinger),P.comcobrina intermedia Lipina and Climacammina usolensis Morozova, and the minority of which are Pachyphloia paraovata maxima K.M.Maclay, Geinitzina cf.uralica Suleimanov, Hemigordius qinglongensis (Wang), Plectogyra turbida (Durkina),P.sp.,Glomospira gordialis (Jones et Parker) and Globivalvulina cyprica Reichel. This assemblage occurs in the middle upper part of the Chihsia Formation in Zhangping of Fujian, and may correspond to the Parafusulina multiseptata Zone-Cancellina primigena Zone. It is disconformably overlain by the Wenbishan Formation yielding ammonoids and is regarded as the youngest foraminiferal assemblage of the Chihsia Stage in Fujian area.