Additional data on the organic communities and facies development of the Korytnica basin (Middle Miocene; Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland)

Abstract

The results of new investigations on the diverse groups of fossils from the world-famous Korytnica Clays and associated deposits extend the previous recognition of the organic communities and its dependence upon environmental conditions that prevailed during the Middle Miocene (Badenian) development of the Korytnica basin, situated on the southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland. Within these limits, commented and/or discussed are the new.data, obtained by the present authors or by the other students, on such animal groups as some foraminifers, boring bryozoans, some brachiopods and ostracodes, decapod crustaceans, some mollusks (chitons, gastropods, pelecypods), fish otoliths and some teeth or bone fragments, and .:finally some trace fossils attributable to the polychaetes. Ecological requirements and/or adapta-tions in some of these groups are also considered, the same as the biologic relationships between the particular groups, and composition of some organic communities. A special attention is paid to those fossils which are indicative of tropical and/or subtropical climatic conditions, as well as of their Indo-Pacific affinities.