The first record of cornulitids tubeworms from the early Late Ordovician of Spiti, Tethyan Himalaya, India

ABSTRACT

Tentaculitoid tubeworms, an extinct invertebrate group, is being reported from the Ordovician strata of Spiti, Tethyan Himalaya, India. External and internal moulds of tentaculitoids are preserved in the lower unit of the Takche Formation which is considered early Late Ordovician in age. The assemblage includes Cornulites cf. sterlingensis, Cornulites zatoni, Cornulites sp., and Tentaculites spp. Cornulites cf. sterlingensis, Cornulites sp., and Cornulites zatoni are recorded and described for the first time from the Ordovician strata of India. Though, the occurrence of genus Tentaculites is previously mentioned from the Early Palaeozoic sequence of Spiti, the detailed documentation is provided herein for the first time from the Ordovician sequence of Spiti, India. The occurrence of solitary-free forms of tentaculitoids from shallow marine settings of Spiti, Tethyan Himalaya, India indicates that unattached free forms might have been more competent in the siliciclastic environment of relatively low palaeolatitude than carbonate platforms of lower palaeolatitudes and siliciclastic environments of the highest palaeolatitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• Key-words—cornulites
• ordovician
• spiti
• tentaculites
• tentaculitoides tubeworms
• Tethyan himalaya

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow (BSIP/RDCC/74/2020–21) and Vice Chancellor, Sambalpur University, Sambalpur for permitting us to publish this paper and for providing necessary research facilities. HS is grateful to UGC for (MANF-F1-17.1/2015–16/MANF-2015–17-UTT-52912) for providing Senior Research fellowship grant to facilitate this work. AS, SG and KJS acknowledged the financial support given by SERB, DST, Government of India in the form of sponsored project (EMR/0006042/2016) to carry out this work.

Disclosure statement

We do not have any conflict of interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University Grant Commission, Govt. of India [MANF-F1-17.1/2015–16/MANF-2015–17-UTT-52912]; Science and Engineering Research Board [EMR/0006042/2016].