New species of the conodont Genus Hindeodus and the conodont biostratigraphy of the Permian-Triassic boundary interval

Four new species of the conodont genus Hindeodus, Hindeodus eurypyge sp. nov., Hindeodus inflatus sp. nov., Hindeodus sp. nov. A and Hindeodus sp. nov. B, are described from the Permian-Triassic transition in South China. Our study confirms the first appearance of Hindeodus parvus at the GSSP level., base of bed 27c at Meishan. However, at Shangsi the first occurrence of H. parvus is about 4.5 m above the event boundary. Analysis of conodont biostratigraphy of the Meishan D section and the Shangsi section suggest significant differences between the two sections. These include the absence of H. changxingensis Wang from the Shangsi section and the approximately 4.5 m of the Shangsi section that contains H. prisc̀us (Kozur), H. latidentatus (Kozur) and H. eurypyge n.sp. below the first occurrence of H. parvus. These differences may be accounted for most easily by suggesting that there is a minor depositional hiatus at the Permian-Triassic boundary GSSP level as based on the first appearance of the conodont Hindeodus parvus in Meishan section D. Taxonomic re-evaluation of Hindeodus Pa elements indicates that species of the genus can be broadly separated into two groups based on the morphology of the posterior portion of the element and on growth patterns. The stable Pa element morphology of Hindeodus, first developed in the Carboniferous, was replaced by a complex of rapid evolutionary change in the latest Permian and Early Triassic, with as many as 11 valid species of the genus in the Permian-Triassic boundary interval, which are probably descendants of only two species, H. typicalis and H. n.sp. B. We suggest that the dramatic change in conodont biofacies observed at the P-T boundary in South China from Neogondolella-dominated faunas to Hindeodus-dominated faunas was caused by the introduction of a high component of silt, beginning in bed 27 at Meishan and bed 28 at Shangsi, that tipped the environmental balance in favor of Hindeodus and Isarcicella over Neogondolella (Clarkina) species. We contend that Hindeodus species were adaptable to higher levels of turbidity than Neogondolella (Clarkina) species and hence at Meishan and Shangsi it was not a matter of a drastic increase in the abundance of Hindeodus, but an exclusion of Neogondolella.