Abstract
Gnamptorhynchos, a rhynchonellid-like orthid brachiopod, evolved from Platystrophia in Maysvillian (early Ashgill) time, and survived both the end-Richmondian and end-Hirnantian episodes of the latest Ordovician mass extinction. The name of the type species of Gnamptorhynchos, G. inversumJin, 1989, is rejected and replaced by Gnamptorhynchos globatum (Twenhofel, 1928), which is a senior synonym. Gnamptorhynchos manitobensis new species is described here from the Selkirk Member (Maysvillian) of the Red River Formation, southern Manitoba. The new species is characterized by a transversely extended, strongly biconvex to globular shell with prominent umbones, relatively numerous costae and a notothyrial cavity supported dorsally by a short median ridge. It constituted part of a Late Ordovician epicontinental fauna that once spread widely in shallow, equatorial seas of North America. The new species is a morphological intermediate between Platystrophia and Gnamptorhynchos, with Platystrophia-like interareas, hingeline, and cardinal process, but Gnamptorhynchos-like shell posterior and notothyrial platform. Previously, Gnamptorhynchos was known from Hirnantian to mid-Aeronian rocks. The new species extends the lower range of the genus to Maysvillian.