Smithicyathus lacunosus ( Gürich, 1896 )

Wrzołek, Tomasz, 2007, A revision of the Devonian rugosan phillipsastreid genus Smithicyathus, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 52 (3), pp. 609-632 : 618-620

Smithicyathus lacunosus ( Gürich, 1896)

Figs. 5B , 7A–C , 8A.

1896 Pachyphyllum lacunosum sp. nov; Gürich 1896: 183–184, pl. 4: 6a–c.

1953 Pachyphyllum lacunosum Gürich ; Różkowska 1953: 45, fig. 26, pl. 6: 3, 4.

1978 Frechastraea? lacunosa ( Gürich, 1896) ; Birenheide: 104–105, fig. 55.

1993 Phillipsastrea lacunosa lacunosa ( Gürich, 1896) ; Wrzołek: 295, fig. 1.1–1.5.

1993 Phillipsastrea lacunosa mariae ssp. nov.; Wrzołek: 295–297, figs. 2.1–2.6, 3.3, 3.4.

2003 Smithicyathus lacunosus lacunosus ( Gürich, 1896) ; Fedorowski: 113, pls 53: 4,5, 54:1.

2003 Smithicyathus lacunosus mariae ( Wrzołek, 1993) ; Fedorowski: 113, pl. 54:2.

Neotype: GIUS 401 PG 51B, fragment of a phaceloid colony (illustrated in Fig. 7A ).

New type locality: Psie Górki, abandoned quarries in the city of Kielce,

Holy Cross Mountains, Poland.

New type horizon: Set F, micritic limestones with intraformational conglomerates, Uppermost Frasnian.

Material.—67 colonies with both transverse and longitudinal sections studied ( Table 1, Appendix 2: column “c”). From the Holy Cross Mountains is the following material (points 1–10 below). (1) Original holotype: illustration of a fragment of a single colony by Gürich (1896: pl. 4: 6). (2) Topotypic (neotopotypic) material: besides the neotype (GIUS 401PG 51B), also the colonies GIUS 401PG 41B, 90A. (3) Possibly topotypic (either from set E or from set F of Psie Górki) are UAM A73,76 ( Różkowska 1953: pl. 6: 3,4) and unnumbered UAM specimen (labelled 324 in collection of Różkowska 1953). (4) From the set E of Psie Górki are: GIUS 401PG 09, 27, 29, 31.

Fig. 6. Upper Frasnian Smithicyathus from Western Canada. A. The holotype of Smithicyathus cinctus ( Smith, 1945) , GSC 9244, the same colony as in Fig. Ą 4A, with some little lacunae within the colony, and non−cerioid walls commonly surrounding more than one tabularium (A 1 transverse, A 2 longitudinal section). B, C. Smithicyathus mcleani sp. nov. with subphaceloid habit, from the collection of McLean (1994b); B. The holotype, GSC 98208, (B 1 transverse,

B 2 longitudinal section); C. Another colony, GSC13826, (C 1 transverse, C 2 longitudinal section), with occasional grouping of few corallites within common wall. Scale bar 4 mm for all items.

(5) From Grabina quarry set C are: GIUS 356G 11, 16B, 152−1, 155−1, 169. (6) From road cutting at Kowala are: GIUS 376KD 25, 39, 41. (7) From Zgórsko quarry at Bolechowice are: GIUS 382ZS 07, 08, 11, 12A, 13, 15B, 17. (8) From Panek quarry at Bolechowice (set B) are: GIUS 384P 06, 08, 09, 21, 22, 29, 30, 41, 54, 57, 65, 72A, 89, 96, 105, 108, 109, 121, 132, 159, 160, 163, 164, 166a, 166b, 172, 178. (9) From Kowala quarry at Kowala (set G) are: GIUS 388KK 24, 27, 29, 52, 55, 60, 129, 156A, 158, 264B, 278A, 288. (10) From Wietrznia quarry is an unnumbered UAM specimen (labelled 325 in collection of Różkowska 1953), possibly from the Uppermost Frasnian (point “19” of Różkowska 1953: 46). Non− Holy Cross Mountains material is from the Lublin area (unnumbered UAM specimen from Korczmin borehole, depth 1891m, collection Różkowska 1980) and from Sumbera near Brno, Czech Republic (GIUS1690MS01E).

Emended diagnosis.—Submassive (phaceloid) colonies of Smithicyathus , commonly with cerioid walls in their massive fragments, and with peripheral dissepimentaria either narrow or absent; corallites are smaller (DIC typically from 4.0 to 4.75 mm), and tabularia are narrower (typically 1.75 to 2.75 mm) than in Smithicyathus mcleani sp. nov. from western Canada (see above).

Remarks.—The holotype of Gürich (1896; see above), was noted as collected at Karczówka Hill in the Kadzielnia range, presumably from the Upper Frasnian; this material is reportedly lost in Wrocław in the final days of World War II; moreover the original location of Gürich could not be re−investigated in strongly overgrown Karczówka, nota bene with the legal status of a natural monument protected area and thus inaccessible for sampling. Due to these circumstances, the present author suggests selection of Psie Górki in Kielce as the new type locality, the Uppermost Frasnian set F of this quarry as a new type horizon, and the specimen illustrated in the present paper in Fig. 7A as the neotype. In all characters the neotype is similar to and conspecific with the colony (fragment) from Karczówka illustrated by Gürich (1896; see synonymy above). Unfortunately, although Różkowska (1953) also illustrated material from Psie Górki ( Różkowska, 1953: pl. 6: 3, 4; re−illustrated by Fedorowski 2003: pl. 53: 4, 5; sections UAMTc4/17 and UAMTc4/18), her data are insufficient to indicate precisely the horizon where her specimen has been collected and thus should not be selected as neotype. At Psie Górki, both in set E and in set F, S. lacunosus is rather uncommon component of diversified assemblage of mostly colonial ( Phillipsastrea , Frechastraea ) but also solitary ( Tabulophyllum , Hankaxis ) rugosans.

Variability.—As presented in “material and methods–intraspecific variability”, and summarized in Table 1, review of 73 phaceloid colonies of Smithicyathus reveals that 53 of them have atypicality indices valued 3 or lower. As the neotype of S. lacunosus (GIUS 401PG 51B) belongs to this group, this may indicate that the “53” represent the “typical” S. lacunosus (see Fig. 7 , Table 1). Also all of the colonies formerly designated as Phillipsastrea lacunosa mariae belong to this group, therefore there are no sound reasons for distinguishing the two subspecies. The colonies with atypicality indices valued 4 to 9 (15 records) are considered “extreme”, most of them possibly represent morphologically extreme representatives of S. lacunosus , but also one colony of S. mcleani sp. nov. falls into this group. As “outstanding” are qualified the colonies (5 records) with atypicality indices from 10 to 17. Here belong the remaining two colonies of S. mcleani sp. nov., but also two colonies from the Panek quarry (one of them dimorphic, and thus three records), which are so outstanding in their morphology, that they are described separately, as S. cf. lacunosus (below).

Discussion.— S. cinctus and S. mcleani sp. nov. have broader tabularia than S. lacunosus . Another similar species, S. smithi , never displays the tripartite (cerioid) walls; some of its colonies, namely those with isolated corallites (CO <1), are otherwise very similar to S. lacunosus .

Paleoecology.—In the Holy Cross Mountains S. lacunosus ( Gürich, 1896) occurs in various paleoenvironments. In the Kadzielnia chain of hills, the species is reported from Karczówka (1 colony), from Grabina quarry, set C (5 colonies), Psie Górki, sets E and F (8 colonies) and from Wietrznia quarry, set E (1 colony). These locations represent fore−reef environments (see Fig. 3 ), shallower at Grabina (set C) becoming deeper and deeper at Wietrznia (set E) and at Psie Górki (sets E and F). In all these locations S. lacunosus ( Gürich, 1896) is accompanied by numerous other species of Rugosa . Limestones of Karczówka were probably deposited in back−reef settings, but this is only a supposition as the outcrop is strongly overgrown there. In the southwestern Holy Cross Mountains the species is known from the northern limb of the Chęciny syncline, mostly from the quarries of Panek (set B: 39 colonies) and Zgórsko (7 colonies) at Bolechowice, but also from the Kowala quarry, set G (12 colonies) and road cutting Kowala (3 colonies). In the southern limb of the Chęciny anticline it occurs at the southern slopes of Miedzianka hill at Miedzianka (fragmentary material, not measured). These southern Smithicyathus −bearing locations represent the shallow−marine, back−reef facies (Panek and Zgórsko) with Smithicyathus being the numerically dominating tetracoral species. The more open−marine settings occur at Miedzianka and in the Kowala quarry, set G, Still deeper, marly facies with intercalated flat−pebble conglomerates is present at road cutting Kowala. In the Lublin area, eastern Poland, S. lacunosus is recored from the Korczmin 2 borehole (1 colony), from dark marly and detrital limestones of the Modryń Fm, from depth 1891m, i.e., the same depth and horizon as the holotype of S. lubliniensis Różkowska, 1980 . In Moravia, eastern Czech Republic, S. lacunosus (1 colony) has been sampled from Sumbera rocks near Brno ( Hladil and Kalvoda 1993: 38–40), from dark detrital limestones deposited in the deeper fore−reef settings. As it seems S. lacunosus ( Gürich, 1896) is a species indicating shallow−marine, back−reef settings or their proximity.

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Upper Frasnian of the Holy Cross Mountains and the Lublin area in Poland, and Moravia ( Czech Republic), the southeastern Euramerican shelf and the eastern margin of the Bohemian microcontinent, respectively.

Figures

Fig. 5. Wall and septal microstructures in the Upper Frasnian Smithicyathus. A. The holotype of massive Smithicyathus cinctus (Smith, 1945), Western Canada, GSC 9244, with non−cerioid, locally discontinuous intercorallite walls; for details of sampling location see McLean 1994b: 80, 81 (A1 transverse, A2 longitudinal section). B. Smithicyathus lacunosus (Gürich, 1896), Panek quarry, GIUS 384P 54, densely phaceloid colony with cerioid (tripartite) intercorallite walls predominating, but also with pseudocerioid segments, mainly between parent and offset corallites close to offsetting area, note also presence of 3rd order septa at some corallite peripheries (B1 transverse, B2 longitudinal section). C. Smithicyathus smithi (Różkowska, 1953), Zgórsko quarry, GIUS 382ZS 14, massive pseudocerioid colony with occasional intercorallite voids, bordered by epithecate walls (C1 transverse, C2 longitudinal section).Scale bar 2 mm for all items.

Fig. 7. Typical colonies of the Upper Frasnian Smithicyathus lacunosus (Gürich, 1896). A. Neotype of S. lacunosus, Psie Górki, set F, GIUS 401PG 51B, with small corallites, thick septa, and the lateral offset in A2, (A1 transverse, A2 longitudinal section). B. Zgórsko quarry, GIUS 382ZS 13, with large corallites and with thick septa; although lateral offsets predominate, note the marginal parricidal offset in B2, (B1 transverse, B2 longitudinal section). C. Sumbera near Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic, GIUS1690MS 01E, with large corallites and with relatively thin septa, (C1 transverse, C2 longitudinal section). Scale bar 4 mm for all items.

Fig. 3. Stratigraphy of the Smithicyathus−bearing deposits in the western part of the Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland; simplified and modified from Racki (1993: fig. 3, in part), G, Grabina; JB, environs of Jaźwica quarry; KD, Kowala roadcut; KK, Kowala quarry; M, Miedzianka; P, Panek; PG, Psie Górki; W, Wietrznia quarry; ZS, Zgórsko. Facies setting of Sobiekurów (SW) not marked here, would correspond to Upper Frasnian occurrence of shales and marls, as indicated above PG or KD in this scheme.