Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2016
New collections of Caradoc brachiopods from the lower half of the Fombuena Formation in the Iberian Chains (northeastern Spain) have yielded rich fossil associations that, in spite of the endemism of most of their species, permit detailed correlations with other sequences in southwestern Europe, Bohemia, and the British Isles. The oldest association studied occurs at the top of the basal oolitic ironstone of the Fombuena Formation, where 10 brachiopod species have been recorded; the youngest association occurs in sandstones in the middle part of the unit, having yielded seven brachiopod species. Herein, 11 forms are described including four new species (Gelidorthis carlsi, Saukrodictya tormoensis, Reuschella herreraensis, and Rostricellula marciali) and one new subspecies (Aegiromena aquila intermedia). The stratigraphic setting of the oolitic ironstone and its brachiopods suggest a correlation with similar beds that crop out at various localities in the Iberian Peninsula and northwestern France, as well as with the Zdice-Nucice Iron Ore, placed at the base of the Vinice Formation in Bohemia. The regressive–transgressive cycle, whose point of maximum shoaling coincides with the deposition of the apparently widespread ferruginous bed, is restricted to the Mediterranean Province and may have been caused by regional epeirogenic movements. The stratigraphic gap marked by the ironstone had been assessed at several localities in Iberia and Armorica; it ranges from late Costonian to Soudleyan, an age not in disagreement with the occurrence of a new species of Reuschella immediately above the ironstone of the Iberian Chains, since Reuschella is not known before the Soudleyan. Dalmanella unguis unguis, which has been recorded in the youngest assemblage and which in Wales is restricted to the Marshbrookian, is another important guide form in the problematic correlation between the Mediterranean Caradoc and the British type sequence.