Lower Tortonian scaphopods from the Korytnica clays, southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mts

Abstract

An assemblage of scaphopods, the richest in Poland, occurs in the Lower Tortonian Pleurotoma clays outcropped in the environs of Korytnica on southern slopes of the Holy Cross Mts. All in all, this assemblage includes thirteen species, that is, four hitherto known from this locality and nine others, four of which are here described as new ones. This is one of the richest assemblages of these molluscs in the Miocene of Europe and in the number of species yields only to some Miocene localities of Italy. Dentalium (Antalis) fossile Schroeter and Fustiaria (Episiphon) miocaenica (Boettger) are most frequent species at Korytnica.The present paper contains paleontological descriptions of particular species, along with characteristics of their life environment. This assemblage has also been compared with those from other Miocene localities and a considerable similarity has been found to the scaphopods of the Vienna Basin, of the environs of Pleven, Bulgaria, and of the environs of Kostej, Transylvania.