Early Cambrian lingulate brachiopods from glacial erratics of King George Island (South Shetland Islands), Antarctica

Erratic boulders of Early Carnbrian age, occurring within the Early Miocene glacio-rnarine Cape Melville Formation on King George Island (South Shetland Islands), Antarctica, have yielded lingul te brachiopods including Eoobolus aff. elatus (Pelman, 1986), Karathele napuru (Kruse, 1990) and Vandalotreta djagoran (Kruse, 1990). It is the first Early Cambrian brachiopod  assemblage described from Antarctica. The fauna is closely similar to that from the late Early Cambrian (Toyonian) Wirrealpa and Aroona Creek Limestones, Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The new family Eoobolidae is proposed and the type species of Eoobolus, E. triparilis (Matthew, 19(2) is re-figured. The evolution of the botsfordiids and acrothelids is discussed in the light of the new material of Karathele napuru, which is intermediate in morphology between Botsfordia and Eothele. The superfamily Acrotheloidea, is referred to the order Lingulida because of the similarities in muscle system, shell structure and development of pseudointerareas.