Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

Tabulate corals from the Givetian and Frasnian of the Holy Cross Mountains and Silesian Upland

Aleksander Nowiński

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 37 (2-4), 1992: 183-216

Tabulate corals an d single species each of the heliolitid a n thozoans and chaetetid sclerosponges mostly from the Givetian and Frasnian stromatoporoid-coral series of the Holy Cross Mts and the Silesia-Cracow Region are reviewed from an ecological and stratigraphical point of view. Thamnopora, or the branched pachyportds, and massive alveolitids are usually the most significant reef-builders. The most distinctive fauna, with Caliapora battersbyi and Heliolites porosus, thrived in the earlier Givetian bank habitats. Late Givetian biostromal-complex associations with Alveolites obtortus, Striatopora eniqmatica. and especially Alveolitella fecunda, as well as the succeeding Frasnian Alveolites-dominated reef-complex faunas with A. maillieuxi, and later with A. tenuissimus, Aulocystis and syringoporids, are far more uniform. In addition, a local Coenites laminosa-Chaetetes yunnanensis fauna is recognized in the Middle Givetian of the Kostomłoty area. The transitional biogeographic position for Polish tabulate assemblages between Variscan Europe and Russia is clearly evident. Forty eight species have been identified. Pachyfavosites polonicus sp. n., Striatopora enigmatica sp. n., Alveolitella polygona sp. n., Armalites minimus sp. n., and Syringoporella raritabulata sp. n., Alveolites edwardsi frasnianus subsp. n., and Caliapora battersbyi minor subsp. n. are proposed.

Key words: tabulates, Devonian, Poland, taxonomy, stratigraphical distribution.


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