Biostratigraphy of Devonian tropidocoryphid trilobites from the Montagne Noire (southern France)

Abstract. An unbroken trilobite-bearing limestone succession of the Montagne Noire yielded tropidocoryphids from the late Emsian to the latest Frasnian. Their occurrences and biostratigraphical ranges are compared with both the Standard conodont zonation and in particular the Montagne Noire Frasnian conodont zonation. Whereas tropidocoryphids are modestly represented in the Eifelian and absent from early Givetian strata, most of the estab-lished conodont zones can be characterized by different taxa of quickly evolving tropidocoryphid lineages. In comparison with taxa from elsewhere, the group is by far the most diversified in the Montagne Noire with 22 different species recognized within the considered time span. One genus (Chlupaciparia gen. n.) and 7 species (Chlupaciparia minutilobus sp. n., Erbenicoryphe nazairensis sp. n., Longicoryphe anteglabra sp. n., L. tenuistriata sp. n., L. lanceolata sp. n., Astycoryphe planifrons sp. n. and Ensecoryphe tumida sp. n.) are erected. New definitions of Denemarkiina