New data on the occurrence of echinoderms in the Muschelkalk (Middle Triassic) of Upper Silesia

Abstract

In the Sadowa Góra quarry in Jaworzno, southern Poland, the Muschelkalk deposits are exposed (Lower and Upper Gogolin Beds). The occurrence of echinoderms seems to be particularly interesting. The isolated ossicles of asteroids were found already in the 1st Wellenkalk of the Lower Gogolin Beds (Aegean), which is one of the oldest post-Paleozoic occurrence in the world. Until recently, it was believed that the first echinoids appeared in the Germanic Basin during the Bithynian (above the Conglomeratic Horizon of the Upper Gogolin Beds). Currently, they have been found, similarly to the remains of asteroids, already in the 1st Wellenkalk. Attention was also drawn to the fact that the stratigraphically important crinoid species Holocrinus dubius may have appeared in Upper Silesia earlier than previously thought.