Latest Famennian brachiopods from Kowala, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland ADAM T. HALAMSKI and ANDRZEJ BALIŃSKI Halamski, A.T. and Baliński, A. 2009. Latest Famennian brachiopods from Kowala, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54 (2): 289–306. DOI: 10.4202/app.2007.0066 Latest Famennian (UD−VI, “Strunian”) brachiopod fauna from Kowala (Kielce Region, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland) consists of eighteen species within 6 orders, eleven of them reported in open nomenclature. Characteristic taxa include: Schellwienella pauli, Aulacella interlineata, Sphenospira julii, Novaplatirostrum sauerlandense, Hadyrhyncha sp., Cleiothyridina struniensis. New morphological details of Schellwienella pauli, Sphenospira julii, and Aulacella inter− lineata are provided. The described latest Famennian brachiopod fauna is distinctly richer than that from underlying up− per Famennian deposits (11 species within 4 orders). Majority of species from Kowala seem to have been adapted to deep water settings and/or poor nutrient availability. The stratigraphic separation between Planovatirostrum in the UD−III to UD−V and Novaplatirostrum in the UD−VI observed in Sauerland and in Thuringia is valid also in the Holy Cross Moun− tains. This is the first comprehensive report of a relatively diversified latest Famennian brachiopod fauna from surface outcrops of Poland. Key words: Brachiopoda, Late Devonian, Famennian, Strunian, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. Adam T. Halamski [[email protected]] and Andrzej Baliński [[email protected]], Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Paleobiology, ul. Twarda 51/55, PL−00−818 Warszawa, Poland. Introduction dorf, Sudetes) are actually Carboniferous in age (Oberc 1957). The material described in the present paper repre− Latest Famennian macrofaunas have been reported from sents therefore the third finding of a diversified brachiopod several regions of Poland: Sudetes (Buch 1839; Tietze fauna of latest Famennian age in Poland. As the faunas from 1870; Schindewolf 1937; Lewowicki 1959; Gunia 1968), boreholes in Pomerania and Lublin Upland (Kaliś 1969; Holy Cross Mountains (= Góry Świętokrzyskie) (Schinde− Matyja 1976) contain none or very few descriptions, the wolf 1944; Czarnocki 1989; Halamski 2003; Dzik 2006), present paper provides the first detailed systematic descrip− Cracow Region (Dębnik Anticline) (Baliński 1995), Carpa− tion of such fauna from Poland and from surface outcrops of thians (Jendryka−Fuglewicz and Fuglewicz 1987, but see the Holy Cross Mountains in particular. comment below), Pomerania (Matyja 1976), and Eastern It may be noted that the latest Famennian (or “Strunian”, Poland (Kaliś 1969; see detailed review by Matyja 1976). an informal name denoted with quotation marks) is ac− However, these rich faunas are represented in great part by cepted here as the equivalent of the Wocklumeria ammo− nektonic species (mainly cephalopods), while benthic ones, noid Genozone (UD−VI, do VI, Fa2d+Tn1a+partly Tn1b), including brachiopods, are rare both quantitatively and corresponding therefore to the Late Palmatolepis expansa qualitatively. Such a situation is similar to that described by and Siphonodella praesulcata conodont zones. It is not to Sartenaer (1997) for the coeval Wocklum Limestone in be confused with the earlier interval, namely the late northern Sauerland (Germany), and, more generally, for Famennian taken here as corresponding to the Clymenia several other Devonian deep water facies deposits. Except Genozone (UD−V), and therefore to the Early to Middle for two rich brachiopod faunas, one from the boreholes Palmatolepis expansa conodont zones (see Becker 1997; Babilon 1, Brda 1, and Rzeczenica 1 near Chojnice in Ziegler 1997; Streel et al. 2006; and especially Amler and Pomerania (several dozens of species; see Matyja 1976), Heidelberger 2003: 1152–1153). the other from the boreholes Opole Lubelskie 5 and Nie− Institutional abbreviations.—MGL, Musée de Géologie, drzwica 2–3 in the Lublin Basin (Kaliś 1969), other “Stru− Lille, France; PIG, Polish Geological Institute, Warsaw, Po− nian” faunules from Poland were taxonomically quite poor; land; ZPAL, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of e.g., only three species have been revealed (Sentosia sp., Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. rhynchonellacean gen. et sp. indet., and Sphenospira?sp.) from Dębnik Anticline by Baliński (1995). Several benthic Other abbreviations.—UD−III to UD−VI, Upper Devonian species stated by Tietze (1870) to occur in the Clymenia ammonoid genozones after Becker (1997); do, Upper Devo− (recte: Wocklumeria) Limestone at Dzikowiec (= Ebers− nian; Fa, Famennian; Tn, Tournaisian. Acta Palaeontol. Pol. 54 (2): 289–306, 2009 DOI: 10.4202/app.2007.0066 290 ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA 54 (2), 2009 2007). Ostracods near the Famennian–Tournaisian boundary Geological setting were investigated by Olempska (1997). Besides the latest Famennian species, new brachiopod The described material comes from the Kowala quarry (for− merly Wola) located near the village of Kowala, ca. 10 km SW material from the underlying middle to upper Famennian from Kielce (Fig. 1). The quarry is situated in the Southern (or strata (sets J and K, Latest Palmatolepis marginifera to Early Kielce) Region of the Holy Cross Mountains (see locality Palmatolepis expansa zones, UD−III to UD−IV, and partly maps in Berkowski 1991, 2002). The Famennian strata, how− UD−V, described by Biernat and Racki (1986a), as being of ever, are developed in the Northern (or Łysogóry) facies char− “late Famennian” age) contains taxa that are previously un− acterised by a thick succession of intercalated limestone and known in the Kowala section. Some species from sets J–K marl (about 150 m at Kowala, while elsewhere in the Southern are common within the set L, but no detailed account of the Region this succession is strongly condensed, e.g., having faunal content of the latter has been given. Fauna from sets only 2 m at Gałęzice; see Czarnocki 1950, 1957; Stupnicka H–L has only been briefly reported by Berkowski (2002: 8). 1992; Szulczewski et al. 1996). The age of the beds exposed in Brachiopods from set L are represented by 115 speci− the Kowala quarry ranges from the Frasnian (Late Devonian) mens belonging to 18 species (see Fig. 1C). Brachiopods, to the earliest Tournaisian (Early Carboniferous). Szulczewski like the other benthic taxa, are quite rare, and even this (1995) subdivided the sequence into twelve lithological sets scarce collection could be completed only over a period of A–L described as “complexes” by Szulczewski (1971) and nine years (the described strata were not cropping out be− Berkowski (1990). Malec (1995), Dzik (1997), and Mary− fore the extension of the quarry in 1999) and with assistance nowski and Filipiak (2007) provided supplementary data on of several persons (see Acknowledgements). the uppermost part of the sequence. The Kowala railroad cut and quarry represent a continu− The described brachiopods were found in the “distinctly ous section from the Frasnian to the lower Tournaisian. One bedded pelitic limestone” (set L of Szulczewski 1995, the up− might expect that study of brachiopods from such a geologi− per part of which corresponds to the complex A sensu Malec cal context would contribute to our knowledge of either the 1995, and Marynowski and Filipiak 2007) which is dated as mass extinction at the Frasnian–Famennian boundary or of the Early Palmatolepis expansa to Siphonodella praesulcata the Hangenberg event at the end of the Devonian. Yet, in zones (Malec 1995). The great majority of the macrofauna spite of the continuous character of the section, brachiopods from set L consists of cephalopods which are represented by are known only from the Frasnian (scattered material, un− over 30 species. Frequent and/or characteristic species in− published data) and the middle to uppermost Famennian clude nautiloids, goniatites, e.g., Discoclymenia cucullata, strata. Recent studies of brachiopod faunal dynamics across and clymeniids, e.g., Cymaclymenia costellata (= C. com− the Frasnian–Famennian boundary in southern Poland (ca. pressa sensu Czarnocki 1989; the commonest species), Gla− 100 km south of Kowala; supposedly the same palaeo− tziella glaucopis, Wocklumeria sphaeroides, Epiwocklume− tectonic unit, namely the Małopolska Block) showed that ria applanata, Kielcensia spp. (Czarnocki 1989; Dzik 2006), brachiopods in that part of the epicontinental basin fully re− therefore attesting to the latest Famennian (Wocklumian) age bounded in the Palmatolepis crepida Zone, i.e., after some of the bulk part of the fauna−bearing beds within the set. 1.5–2 Ma (Baliński 1996, 2002). Similar post−extinction re− Nonetheless an UD−V age of a minor part of the fauna of the covery of the shelf biota during the Palmatolepis crepida set L is strongly suggested by the presence of the goniatite Zone is also observed in the Holy Cross Mountains (Racki Alpinites zigzag (= Discoclymenia zigzag; Schindewolf 1944; 1990, 1998; Racki and Baliński 1998). Thus, the brachio− Becker 2002; Dzik 2006). Benthic organisms are rare and podfaunadescribedhere,livingabout8to15Maafterthe most of them have not been studied. The latter are repre− Frasnian–Famennian event evidently postdates the recov− sented by tabulates, rugosans (Amplexus sp., Oligophylloides ery process. On the other hand, absence of brachiopods pachythecus, Neaxon bulloides; see Różkowska 1969), gas− from the strata overlying the black shale corresponding to tropods, crinoids, trilobites, and brachiopods.