Terena Syncline, Barrancos area, Portugal (Silurian of Portugal)

Where: Portugal (38.1° N, 7.0° W: paleocoordinates 70.7° S, 37.7° E)

When: Cyrtograptus lundgreni-Monograptus testis zone, Xistos com Nodulos Formation, Silurian (443.8 - 419.2 Ma)

• "The Portuguese exposure corresponds to the "Xistos com Nodulos' Fm. (terminology after Delgado, 1908 and later authors that in the locality ranges in age from Telychian to levels in the Ludlow according to the graptolites."

Environment/lithology: marine

• "Sponges occur within a remarkable graptolite succession of black shales that include variously developed intercalations of hard, siliceous units and, in the upper part, also thin limestone beds and calcareous nodules." "[The sponges] was collected from 22.5 cm below the top of a marker horizon of soft, orange colored, volcanic(?) rocks, from beds appx. contemporaneous with the similar beds reported from the Valle section."

Primary reference: J. K. Rigby, J. C. Gutierrez-Marco, M. Robardet and J. M. Picarra. 1997. First articulated Silurian sponges from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). Journal of Paleontology 71(4):554-563 [J. Alroy/M. Sommers/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 677: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Mike Sommers on 23.02.1999

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Hexactinellida
 Reticulosa - Protospongiidae
? Gabelia sp., Diagoniella sp., Protospongia iberica
? Gabelia sp. Rigby and Murphy 1983 glass sponge
originally entered as "? Gabelia sp."
Diagoniella sp. Rauff 1894 glass sponge
Protospongia iberica glass sponge
new species
Pterobranchia
 Graptoloidea - Monograptidae
Monograptus flemingii, "Monograptus testis" = Testograptus testis, Pristiograptus sp.
"Monograptus testis" = Testograptus testis Barrande 1859 graptolite
Pristiograptus sp. graptolite