Upper Permian silicified sponges from central Guangxi and western Hubei, South China

Abstract

Well-preserved silicified sponges have been recovered from the Upper Permian Changxing Formation at Huangnitang in western Hubei province. The new speciesCystauletes grossaandCystothalamia irregularaare associated withCystothalamiasp.,Colospongia salinaria irregularisZhang, 1983,Sollasia ostiolataSteinmann, 1882,Virgola?osiensis(de Gregorio, 1930), a questionable inozoan species, and a form questionably referred to the genusHikorodium? sp. These sponges were detrital fragments that accumulated at the toe of the forereef, at the margin of slope fades and basin fades, at Huangnitang.Amblysiphonella vesiculosa minimaZhang, 1983, is represented in the collections from the Upper Permian Heshan Formation at the village of Guwu, near Heshan City in central Guangxi. Heshan beds that produced the silicified sponges are of Wujiapingian age and accumulated on a normal-marine, shallow-water carbonate platform, or in skeletal shoals within the carbonate platform, and represent a level-bottom community.