A New Species Of Coenothyris (Brachiopoda) From The Triassic (Upper Anisian-Ladinian) Of Israel

Coenothyris oweni new species is described from the Lower Member (Upper Anisian-Ladinian) of the Triassic Saharonim Formation (Upper Anisian-Lower Carnian) at Har Gevanim, Makhtesh Ramon, southern Israel. The Saharonim Formation was deposited under normal, calm, shallow marine conditions as part of the ingression of the Saharonim Sea. The presence of Coenothyris along with characteristic conodonts, ostracodes, foraminiferans, bivalves, cephalopods, gastropods, echinoderms and vertebrate remains is 1) indicative of the Sephardic Province; 2) diagnostic of the Middle Triassic series of Israel; and 3) important in differentiating the Sephardic Province from the Germanic Muschelkalk and Tethyan Realm faunas to the north and correlating the Triassic rocks in the Negev.