Malvinokaffric Realm

This is present in Antarctica, the southern two-thirds of South America (Parana Basin, Sierras Australes and the provinces of Salta and Jujuy in Argentina, Bolivia and southern Peru central and northern Peru, as well as Ecuador and western Colombia are very poorly known in Devonian terms), the Falkland Islands, South Africa, Ghana, and Guinea (Racheboeuf and Villeneuve, 1992). In the Argentine Precordillera (Herrera and Racheboeuf, 1997), as in the Silurian, there is evidence for boundary mixing between the Malvinokaffric Realm, plus the Old World and Eastern Americas realms, as is also the case in northern Chile (Boucot etal., 1995). 

Amazon Subprovince. This is known only from a few restricted outcrop areas in the Amazon Basin, and possibly within the Parnaiba Basin. Its time range is about Emsian, Eifelian, and into the Givetian. It is characterised by a mixture of Eastern Americas Realm brachiopods and Malvinokaffric Realm trilobites, reflecting an area of boundary mixing. 

Boucot, A.J. and Racheboeuf, P.R. (1993) Biogeographic summary of the Malvinokaffric Realm Silurian and Devonian fossils. In Suarez Soruco (ed.) Fosiles y facies de Bolivia, 2. Invertebrados y paleobotanica. Revista Tecnica Y.P.F.B., 13-14, 71-75. 

I have been able to examine the South African specimen and can confirm its similarity with Pucapampella from Bolivia. A detailed comparison of the two forms is in preparation, and only the salient features of the Bolivian braincase will be outlined here. In passing, it is biogeographically noteworthy that these fossils are from two localities (now widely separated) which have also produced endemic trilobites and other fossils characteristic of the southern hemisphere cold-water Malvinokaffric Realm. 

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