Orlej Quarry, Gluchowki, near Cracow (Kraków) (Carboniferous of Poland)

Where: Malopolskie, Poland (50.1° N, 19.6° E: paleocoordinates 3.4° S, 20.8° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Gnathodus girtyi collinsoni conodont zone, Orlej Limestone Formation, Brigantian (336.0 - 326.4 Ma)

• Gromczakiewicz-Lomnicka: "The area of Orlej was transitional between the zone of the Carboniferous Limestone and the zone of Culm"; "150 m of Carboniferous beds"

•Olempka: “The age of these beds was determined on brachiopod evidence as Late Visean by Czarniecki (1955, 1956). Conodonts from the limestone intercalations indicate the Gnathodus girtyi collinsoni Zone, which corresponds in age to the Visean/Namurian boundary (Belka 1982).”

•Probably P2 (late Brigantian) given Olempska's description

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: shallow subtidal; pyritic, black, muddy shale and dolomitic limestone

• Repeated from Czarniecki (1955) "In the W, the Carboniferous deposits are cut by a fault, along which they contact with the Loer Jurassic clays; in the E, the Carboniferous deposits contact with an intrusion of porphyry, which changed the colour and strongly silicified the adjacent shales, tuffites, and conglomerates. Intercalations of limestones occur in the western, and stratigraphically higher, part of the profile. One of them is situated several metres to the W of the porphyry and its thickness is 45 cm; the second intercalation, 20 cm thick, lies 12 m above the frist one."

•From Olempska 1993: "The Orlej section represents a relatively thick, over 100 m in thickness, sequence of dark grey and black clay and sandy shales with only two intercalations of limestone beds. It is exposed out in the Orlej Quarry in the vicinity of Zalas, in the southern Cracow Upland (Fig. 1). This is the only argillaceous sequence of the Visean, with a paleontologically documented age, on the eastern fringe of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Belka 1982)."

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, permineralized, replaced with pyrite

Collected by Stanislaw Czarniecki in 1954, 1955

• Specimens at Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (ZPAL).

Primary reference: E. Olempska. 1993. An ostracod assemblage from late Visean shales of the Cracow area. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 38(1/2):93-107 [P. Wagner/P. Wagner]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 101993: authorized by Pete Wagner, entered by Hallie Street on 06.01.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Most numerous are brachiopods (Czarniecki 1955, 1 956), gastropods (Gromczakiewicz-Eomnicka l972), trilobites (Osmolska 1 970), corals (Nowinski 1976; Kulicka & Nowinski 1978), nautiloids (Dzik 1984), fenestellid bryozoans, and pelecypods. Detailed geological studies of this section were made by Dzurnski (1955), Pilat (1957), and Czarniecki & Lydka (1958).
Gastropoda
 Murchisoniina - Soleniscidae
Soleniscus sp. Meek and Worthen 1860 snail
Soleniscus ? minor de Koninck 1881 snail
Soleniscus monodontiformis de Koninck 1881 snail
"Soleniscus paludinaeformis" = Strobeus paludinaeformis Hall 1858 snail
"Ianthinopsis ventricosa" = Strobeus ventricosus de Koninck 1881 snail
"Soleniscus pusilla" = Macrochilina pusilla de Koninck 1881 snail
Ianthinopsis sp. Meek and Worthen 1866 snail
Ianthinopsis indet. Meek and Worthen 1866 snail
 Murchisoniina - Loxonematidae
Loxonema sp. Phillips 1841 snail
 Murchisoniina - Palaeozygopleuridae
Palaeozygopleura sp. Horný 1955 snail
? Palaeozygopleura sp. Horný 1955 snail
Palaeozygopleura orlejensis Gromczakiewicz-Lomnicka 1972 snail
 Murchisoniina - Gosseletinidae
Luciellina sp. Kittl 1900 snail
"Glabrocingulum (? Ananias) sp." = Ananias Knight 1945 snail
Trepospira (Angyomphalus) subplana Gromczakiewicz-Lomnicka 1972 snail
 Murchisoniina - Porcelliidae
Hesperiella thomsoni de Koninck 1883 snail
 Murchisoniina - Eotomariidae
Spiroscala intermedia de Koninck 1883 snail
 Bellerophontida - Bellerophontidae
Patellilabia aplanata, "Knightites (? Retispira) sp." = Retispira, "Knightites (Retispira) sp." = Retispira, Knightites (Retispira) striata, "Knightites (Retispira) exilis" = Retispira exilis
Patellilabia aplanata Gromczakiewicz-Lomnicka 1972 snail
"Knightites (? Retispira) sp." = Retispira Knight 1945 snail
"Knightites (Retispira) sp." = Retispira Knight 1945 snail
Knightites (Retispira) striata Fleming 1828 snail
"Knightites (Retispira) exilis" = Retispira exilis de Koninck 1883 snail
 Bellerophontida - Euphemitidae
Euphemites sacajawensis Branson 1937 snail
 Euomphalina - Euomphalidae
 Zygopleuroidea - Pseudozygopleuridae
"Palaeostylus (Stephanozyga) rugiferus" = Nodozyga rugifera
"Palaeostylus (Stephanozyga) rugiferus" = Nodozyga rugifera Phillips 1836 snail
 Cerithimorpha - Orthonemidae
"Stegocoelia (? Hypergonia) sp." = Hypergonia
"Stegocoelia (? Hypergonia) sp." = Hypergonia Donald 1892 snail
  -
 Neritoidea - Naticopsidae
"Naticopsis (Jedria) sp." = Jedria Yochelson 1953 snail