Highly silicified Early Devonian (Emsian) brachiopods from the Murrindal Limestone, Buchan, eastern Victoria

Silicified Early Devonian (Emsian; perbonus Zone) brachiopods from the Murrindal Limestone of eastern Victoria are documented in their entirety for the first time. The fauna consists of 35 species, assigned to 31 genera, and shows closest faunal similarities with the brachiopod faunas of the Murrumbidgee Group of the Taemas-Wee Jasper area of New South Wales. The Murrindal Limestone brachiopod fauna is dominated taxonomically by strophomenids (five genera and five species), orthids (eight genera and eight species) and spiriferids (five genera and six species). However, the atrypids, especially Atryparia penelopeae (Chatterton, 1973) (784 ventral valves; 794 dorsal valves; 778 articulated specimens), dominate the fauna numerically. New taxa include the dalmanellid subfamily Bidigitinae subfam. nov. with type species Bidigitus murrindalensis gen. et sp. nov.; other new taxa are a dalmanellid, Biernatium catastum sp. nov., and a leptaenid, Notoleptaena adamantea sp. nov.