An Early Permian fusuline fauna from southernmost Peninsular Thailand: Discovery of Early Permian warming spikes in the peri-Gondwanan Sibumasu Block

Abstract An Early Permian fusuline fauna is reported from the Tarn To Formation of the Yala area in southernmost Peninsular Thailand, which geotectonically belongs to the peri-Gondwanan Sibumasu Block. The fauna consists of Pseudofusulina and Praeskinnerella ? species, including forms closely resembling Tethyan and Panthalassan Pseudofusulina fusiformis and Pseudofusulina ex gr. kraffti . A Yakhtashian–Bolorian age is estimated for this fauna. In Sibumasu, shallow-marine biotas showing similar Tethyan affinities, such as the fusulines Misellina and alatoconchid bivalves, also occur in the Early Permian succession of the Kinta Valley area in western Peninsular Malaysia. These unusual Tethyan faunas within Early Permian peri-Gondwanan fossil records suggest episodic influences from paleo-tropical Tethyan biotas. They are here interpreted as showing short-term warming spikes during the late Yakhtashian–Bolorian transgression, which would facilitate sporadic migration and temporal inhabitation of warm-water dwellers into the eastern Cimmerian areas. The Yala and Kinta Valley fusuline and other invertebrate faunas would give us a new insight for the Permian geohistory and environmental change of the peri-Gondwanan Sibumasu Block.