Bivalve coquina assemblage (Triassic of Poland)

Where: Poland (50.0° N, 19.0° E: paleocoordinates 18.2° N, 24.6° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Karchowice Formation, Anisian (247.2 - 242.0 Ma)

• The paleoecologic analysis is based on five sections from the Strzelc Opolskie Quarry. The five sections cover the entire span of the Terebratula Beds and the lowermost part of the Karchowice Beds. The Terebratula Beds are subdivided into three units: Lower marls, Crinoid limestones, and Coquina and wavy limestones (See description below for details) Upper Silesian Region

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified limestone

• Bivalve coquina assemblage - 9 bedding planes with 697 specimens represent this type of assemblage.
• Lower marls - Crumpled and wavy limestones dominate in this unit. Shelly fossils are practically absent. Only in one place badly preserved tiny bivalves have been observed.

•Crinoid Limestone - Two firmgrounds occur in the lower part of this unit. the middle and upper parts are composed of thick calcarenitic beds. Dominant skeletal components change upward from mixed skeletal debris in the lower part, through crinoid columnals in the middle part, to terebratulid shell debis in the upper part.

•Coquinas and wavy limestone - Four lithological types have been distinguished:

•a) brachiopod coqunia. Up to 30 cm thick coquina layers, separated by crumpled and wavy limestone, occur in the whole unit.

•b) Crumpled and wavy limestone. Limestone beds which exhibit deformational structures varying from wavy bedding and gentle undulation, to structures intricately crumpled and fragmented. Fossils uncommon but their number increase upward.

•c) Bivalve coquina. This lithology appears in the uppermost part if the unit as thin shell beds composed of closely packed internal molds of small articulated bivalves.

•d) Organodetrial limestone with foraminifers. Numerous benthic forams are the main component of this limestone.

•Karchowice Beds - Crinoid and micritic limestones dominate in this unit. Sponges as well as brachiopods are identified. Very numerous are columnals of crinoids and in places, shells of unidentified bivalves. Hardgrounds with a rich assemblages of trace fossiles are well developed on the micritic limestone bedding planes

Size class: macrofossils

Primary reference: A. Kaim. 1997. Brachiopod-bivalve assemblages of the middle Triassic Terebratula Beds, Upper Siesia, Poland. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 42(2):333-359 [D. Bottjer/N. Bonuso/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: paleoecologic analysis

PaleoDB collection 33419: authorized by David Bottjer, entered by Nicole Bonuso on 29.07.2003

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Bivalvia
 Pterioida - Prospondylidea
"Enantiostreon difforme" = Terquemia difformis
"Enantiostreon difforme" = Terquemia difformis Schlotheim 1820 clam
 Pectinida - Limidae
Plagiostoma sp. Sowerby 1814 file clam
Plagiostoma cf. praecursor Quenstedt 1856 file clam
Pseudolimea sp. Douglas and Arkell 1932 file clam
 Ostreida - Bakevelliidae
Hoernesia socialis Schlotheim 1823 oyster
 Carditida - Myophoricardiidae
Pseudocorbula sp. Philippi 1898 clam
Rhynchonellata
 Rhynchonellida - Austrirhynchidae
 Athyridida - Diplospirellidae
Tetractinella trigonella Schlotheim 1820
 Terebratulida - Dielasmatidae
Coenothyris vulgaris Schlotheim 1820