Middle Ordovician brachiopods from Tagoat, Co. Wexford, SE Ireland: Dapingian diversity drivers

The Dapingian (Arenig) siltstones and sandstones of the Tagoat Group, County Wexford, SE Ireland, contain a well-preserved and diverse brachiopod fauna including a new genus of alimbellid, Palaeotagoatia (type species: Orthis Bailyana Davidson) together with the plectorthid Ffynnonia costata (Bates) hibernica nov. subsp. Of the 13 forms documented, at least six are conspecific with brachiopods from the upper Arenig (Dapingian-lowest Darriwilian) Treiorwerth Formation on Anglesey and a further two are identified with species occurring in the older Dapingian Carmel Formation. The faunal province affinities of the fauna are with those assemblages assigned to the peri-insular and marginal Celtic province and which occupied positions within the Middle Ordovician Iapetus Ocean between the Laurentian and Baltic platform provinces. More precise correlation of Middle Ordovician units suggests a significant species richness during the Dapingian-earliest Darriwilian and signalling also an early development of the Celtic province. But the shallow-water siliciclastic facies associated with these islands may also have influenced the distribution of some elements of the Celtic brachiopods and promoted the prevalence of coarse-ribbed orthides, such as Paralenorthis.