Rariellidae,a new family of Rhynchoporoidea (Brachiopoda) with a restudy of the type genus Rariella Zhang 1981, from the Emsian (Early Devonian) of Inner Mongolia,north China

Rong Jla-yu & Zhang Yan. 1994:03:28. Rariellidae, a new family of Rhynchoporoidea (Brachiopoda) with a restudy of the type genus Rariella Zhang 1981. from the Emsian (Early Devonian) of Inner Mongolia, north China. Alcheringa 18. 135–146. ISSN 0311-5518

Reinvestigation of the type material of Rariella Zhang 1981, from the late Emsian (Early Devonian) of western Inner Mongolia, north China, shows that it should be attributed to the rhynchoporoids rather than the retziids since it possesses a punctate shell without laterally directed spiralia and lacks evidence for the brachiophore supports being in the fonn of a loop, as in the terebratuloids. A new family Rariellidae based on Rariella as the type genus is characterized by a spondylium apically in the pedicle wlve and a cardinal process on a septalium in the brachial valve. The fauna containing Rariella is mainly endemic to Inner Mongolia and developed at depths within Benthic Assemblage 2 to inner BA 3.