The rugosan fauna from the Guanyinqiao Bed (latest Ordovician, Hirnantian) of northern Guizhou, China is known to belong to the cold or cool-water type corals. The components of the fauna are solitary corals only, and corallite septa are generally strongly dilated, especially the streptelasmatid corals are dominant comprising 98% of the whole fauna. The Guanyinqiao Bed is rich in rugosans of 18 genera, which are streptelasmatid Streptelasma (=Helicelasma), Brachyelasma, Amplexobrachyelasma, Salvadorea, Grewingkia, Borelasma, Crassilasma, Leolasma, Kenophyllum, Ullernelasma, Paramplexoides, Siphonolasma, Pycnactoides, Dalmanophyllum, Bodophyllum, Axiphoria, Lambeophyllum and cystiphyllid Sinkiangolasma. Although this fauna was fairly abundant in a confined area (northern-northeastern Guizhou, southern Sichuan) during the Hirnantian age, the rugosan mass extinction (generic extinction rate 81%) happened at the end of the Hirnantian Stage. It is concluded that the mass extinction is related to the ending of maximum glaciation and ice cap melting in Gondwana in the southern hemisphere in the latest Hirnantian, resulting in rapid global sea-level rise in the earliest Silurian. In the Upper Yangtze Basin, the sea bottom environments were replaced by anoxic and warmer water during that time, so that the cool-water type rugosan became extinct. The present paper attempts to revise some already described rugose coral genera and species (He, 1978, 1985) and to supplement a few new forms from the Guanyinqiao Bed. Fourteen species of 12 genera are re-described and illustrated, of which one species-Grewingkia latifossulata is new. As a whole, the rugosan fauna of the Guanyinqiao Bed may be correlated with those contemporaneous of North Europe, Estonia and North America, indicating a close biogeographic affinity to North Europe. The rugosan fauna from the Guanyinqiao Bed (latest Ordovician, Hirnantian) of northern Guizhou, China is known to belong to the cold or cool-water type corals. The components of the fauna are solitary corals only, and corallite septa are typically strongly dilated, The Guanyinqiao Bed is rich in rugosans of 18 genera, which are streptelasmatid Streptelasma (= Helicelasma), Brachyelasma, Amplexobrachyelasma, Salvadorea, Grewingkia, Borelasma, Crassilasma, Leolasma, Kenophyllum, Ullernelasma, Paramplexoides, Siphonolasma, Pycnactoides, Dalmanophyllum, Bodophyllum, Axiphoria, Lambeophyllum and cystiphyllid Sinkiangolasma. Although this fauna was fairly abundant in a confined area (northern-northeastern Guizhou, southern Sichuan) during the Hirantian age, the rugosan mass extinction rate 81%) happened at the end of the Hirnantian Stage. It is concluded that the mass extinction is relat ed to the ending of maximum glaciation and ice cap melting in Gondwana in the southern hemisphere in the latest Hirnantian, resulting in rapid global sea-level rise in the earliest Silurian. In the Upper Yangtze Basin, the sea bottom environments were replaced by anoxic and warmer water during that time, so that the cool-water type rugosan became extinct. The present paper attempts to revise some already described rugose coral genera and species (He, 1978, 1985) and to supplement a few new forms from the Guanyinqiao Bed. Fourteen species of 12 genera are re-described and illustrated, of which one species-Grewingkia latifossulata is new. As a whole, the rugosan fauna of the Guanyinqiao Bed may be correlated with those contemporaneous of North Europe, Estonia and North America, indicating a close biogeographic affinity to North Europe.