Lyssakidae sponges from the Carboniferous limestone and the Culm of southern Poland and their environmental differentiation

Abstract

Gąbki Lyssakida z wapienia węglowego i kulmu południowej Polski i ich zróżnicowanie środowiskowe Two assemblages of Lyssakidae sponges are described from the Visean deposits, i.e. from the Carboniferous Limestone of Gałęzice (Holy Cross Mts.) and the Culm of Orlej (west of Kraków), in southern Poland. The assemblages are possibly equivalent in age, and occur in deposits of the same basin. Twelve genera are described, five of them new: Prenehydnoceras, Carbonella, Czarnockiella, Dialyscyphia, Repospongia. Of 17 species, 13 occur at Gałęzice and four at Orlej. The sponges at Gałęzice occur with diversified benthic fauna, in a reef limestone deposited above the wave-base. The sponges at Orlej lived below the wave-base, probably as the only benthic organisms.