INTRODUCTION

The name McCloud Belt was coined by Miller (1987) to include terranes in westernmost North America with similar geologic histories and containing similar Early Permian fusulinid faunas differing from those of cratonal North America. Permian rocks considered to belong to the McCloud Belt are in the Eastern Klamath, Bilk Creek, Grindstone, and Chilliwack terranes; the Harper Ranch subterrane of the Quesnel terrane; the Central Belt of the Northern Sierra Nevada (Figure 1); and the Stikine terrane.

The fusulinid faunas from above listed terranes are quite well known from the work of Pitcher (1960) on the Stikine terrane, from reports of Skinner and Wilde (1965, 1966) on the Eastern Klamath, Bilk Creek, Grindstone, and Chilliwack terranes, and from a small study of Stevens (1997) on the Central Belt of the Northern Sierra Nevada. Based on these studies, the various terranes of the McCloud Belt generally have been interpreted to have been closely associated during the Early Permian. The geographic positions of these terranes relative to cratonal North America, postulated on the basis of these and other Permian faunas (e.g., Monger and Ross, 1971; Ross and Ross, 1983; Stevens and Rycerski, 1983; Stevens et al., 1990; Belasky et al., 2002; Belasky and Stevens, 2006), however, are still disputed. Thus, new faunal data are badly needed.

Early Permian corals are abundant and widespread both in the terranes of the McCloud Belt and along much of the western and northern margins of cratonal North America. These fossils already have been employed in interpretations of relationships between several of the terranes of the McCloud Belt and the geographic positions of these terranes relative to cratonal North America (e.g., Stevens et al., 1990) during the Permian.

Up to the present, however, corals of the McCloud Belt were known primarily from a study by Merriam (1942) on Late Paleozoic corals from the Grindstone terrane, reports by Wilson (1982, 1985) on latest Pennsylvanian and Early Permian corals from the Eastern Klamath terrane, and a study by Stevens and Rycerski (1989) of Early Permian corals from the Stikine terrane. No corals have been described or figured previously from the Central Belt of the Northern Sierra Nevada or from the Bilk Creek and Chilliwack terranes.

The purpose of this paper is to report on previously undocumented occurrences of Permian corals throughout the McCloud Belt to better understand relationships between the faunas of various parts of this belt and between them and those of cratonal North America.