Early Campanian Corallistidae (lithistid Demospongiae) from the Miechów and Mogilno-Łódź synclinoria, southern and central Poland

Abstract

Early Campanian corallistids have been identified among redeposited lithistid Demospongiae from the Neogene gravels exposed in the Bełchatów lignite mine (central Poland). Until now, the Campanian representatives of the Corallistidae have been known only from north-western Germany and southern Poland. Apart from descriptions of these sponges, this paper also provides a taxonomic revision of Campanian corallistid sponges from the Lelów area (southern Poland), derived from museum collections. Six species of Corallistidae have been distinguished in both sponge assemblages and it seems that at present this is taxonomically the most diverse corallistid fauna known from the Cretaceous. Three new species: Neophrissospongia kacperskii sp. nov., Corallistes campanensis sp. nov. and Pachinion canaliculatum sp. nov. have been described. The genera Corallistes, previously noted only from the Eocene of Italy, and Neophrissospongia, representatives of which have not been so far found in the fossil record, are documented for the first time in the Cretaceous. Three other species described were also noted in the Campanian of Lower Saxony. In view of the very good state of preservation of the sponges, significant new data on the choanosomal skeleton and the ectosomal megascleres of fossil corallistid taxa are presented.