Late Sinemurian and Early Pliensbachian Radiolaria from Mount Rettenstein (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria). Part 2. Entactinaria and Spumellaria

Abstract

On Mount Rettenstein (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria) a 95-m-thick Lower Jurassic succession of grey siliceous limestone and marl allowed us to study well-preserved and diverse radiolarian assemblages. The succession crossing the Sinemurian–Pliensbachian boundary yielded seven productive radiolarian samples, five of which were assigned to the Upper Sinemurian and two to the Lower Pliensbachian. In this article, we present 24 species and nine genera belonging to the order Entactinaria, and 66 species and 27 genera to the order Spumellaria. One genus (Tetractoma Cifer nov. gen.) and six species are described as new: Charlottalum austriacum Cifer nov. sp., Crucella optima Cifer nov. sp., Hexapyramis? sphaericus Cifer nov. sp., Paronaella triangularis Cifer nov. sp., Pseudoheliodiscus rotaformis Cifer nov. sp., and Tetractoma tollmanni Cifer nov. gen. nov. sp. In the Sinemurian, by far the most abundant genus amongst either Spumellaria and Entactinaria is Gorgansium. The Pliensbachian samples are, on the other hand, dominated by the genera Archaeocenosphaera and Praeconocaryomma. Compiled stratigraphic and geographic ranges as well as synonymies, descriptions and remarks are provided.