GEOLOGICA CARPATHICA, 49, 6, BRATISLAVA, DECEMBER 1998
409413
NEW UPPER JURASSIC SERPULIDS (POLYCHAETA, SEDENTARIA)
FROM THE PIENINY KLIPPEN BELT IN THE WESTERN CARPATHIANS
VÁCLAV ZIEGLER
1
and JOZEF MICHALÍK
2
1
Department of Biology and Environmental Education, Faculty of Education, Charles University,
M.D. Rettigové 4, 110 00
Praha 1, Czech Republic
2
Geological Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 842 26 Bratislava, Slovak Republic; geolmich@savba.savba.sk
(Manuscript received February 26, 1998; accepted in revised form November 3, 1998)
Abstract: Lower Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) serpulids (Polychaeta, Sedentaria) have been found in the Czorsztyn
Unit in the western part of the Pieniny Klippen Belt. A new species, named as Spirorbis imprimus sp. nov., accompanied
by other specifically indeterminable serpulid remnants, was described. Epizoan worms found on shells of both benthic
and nektonic animals indicate neritic environmental conditions for the whole assemblage.
Key words: Western Carpathians, Pieniny Klippen Belt, Late Jurassic, lower Tithonian, paleoecology, taxonomy,
Polychaeta, Sedentaria.
Introduction
Mesozoic serpulid remnants were only scarcely described in
the literature: Triassic representatives were studied by
Assmann (1937), Brönimann & Zaninetti (1972), Ziegler &
Michalík (1980), Jurassic serpulid fauna was analysed by
Parsch (1956) and Cretaceous forms were investigated by
Regenhardt (1961), Ware (1975) and Ziegler (1984).
This study compares infrequent findings of lower
Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) serpulids from Vieska-Bezdedov
with these of Parsch (1965). The preservation of serpulid
tubes in our material is very variable. The details of tube
morphology and structure of specimens belonging to the
newly defined taxon are very well preserved. On the other
hand, the reconstruction of their original shape was possible
through comparison of several individuals only. The material
of other species is preserved in the form of imprints.
Geographic setting
The Vieska-Bezdedov village is located in the Biela Voda
Valley on the road from Púchov in the middle Váh River
Valley (Western Slovakia) to Lysá pod Makytou and further
to Zlín in the Czech Republic. This road and railroad track
go through the pass between the northernmost part of the
Biele Karpaty Mts. and the southernmost part of the
Javorníky Mountains; these mountain ridges form part of the
frontier between the Slovak and Czech Republics. The
iaèik Klippe crops out on north-eastern slope of the Kruhy
Hill above Vieska-Bezdedov and Dohòany villages (Fig. 1).
Geological setting
The area forms a part of the Pieniny Klippen Belt, a com-
plicated tectonic structure along the contact of Central- and
Outer Carpathians. It consists of several units which former-
ly represented the Mesozoic North European shelf margin.
Sedimentary sequences of partial basins and ridges were
transformed into slice-like tectonic bodies during Neoalpine
collision- and lateral shear movement.
There are two principal units represented in the area
investigated. The Czorsztyn Unit, as the first, was deposited
on a complex large shallow-water treshold structure, named
the Czorsztyn Ridge. Its sedimentary record is represented by
Bajocian-Bathonian crinoidal limestones of the Smolegowa
and Krupianka Formations, Callovian to Tithonian red nodular
Ammonitico Rosso limestones of the Czorsztyn Formation,
Tithonian to Hauterivian whitish organodetrital limestones of
the Dursztyn-, £ysa- and Spi Formations (all these litho-
stratigraphic names were either defined or re-defined by
Birkenmajer 1977).
The second, Kysuca Unit, is closely related to the Pieniny
Unit of Birkenmajer (l.c.). This infilling of an intrashelf
basin consists of Middle and Upper Jurassic radiolarite
complex (Sokolica- and Czajakowa Formations) covered by
thin red nodular marlstone beds (a representative of the
Czorsztyn Fm.), Lower Cretaceous pelagic cherty limestones
of the Pieniny Limestone Formation and mid-Cretaceous
marlstone complex similar to the Kapunica Formation of
Birkenmajer (l.c.).
Both the units are covered by Upper Cretaceous shaly com-
plexes composed of Campanian/Maastrichtian Púchov Marls
(equivalent to the Birkenmajers Jaworki Fm.) and of Santo-
nian/Campanian Pupov Flysch Beds comparable to the ro-
mowce Formation. The Mesozoic sequence is followed by
thick Eocene Flysch of the Biele Karpaty Unit (Fig. 1).
The iaèik Klippe was derived from the Czorsztyn elevation
cover. The sequence, about 25 m thick, is exposed here in
almost vertical position (Fig. 2). Andrusov (1945) distinguished
the 6.5 m thick Oxfordian Czorsztyn Formation part with
numerous ammonites (described already by Neumayr 1871), the
Dursztyn Formation with fine organogenic breccias named as
410 ZIEGLER
and MICHALÍK
the Rogo¿a Breccia and a thin (1.5 m) Kimmeridgian part con-
sisting of rose micrital limestone with Mn concentrations and
numerous ammonites. Rough limestone breccia with yellow and
redish matrix and clasts attaining up to one meter in diameter
should cap the sequence.
On the basis of the newest microbiostratigraphic and mi-
crofacies study, Reháková (Bratislava, pers. comm.) distin-
guished a four meters thick complex of upper Oxfordian
limestones (belonging to the Czorsztyn Fm.) on the base,
overlain by rough limestone breccia (5.5 m, probable equiva-
lent of the Wapiennik Breccia of Birkenmajer 1977 ?). This
breccia is followed by Kimmeridgian nodular limestones of
the Czorztyn Fm. (6 m) with allodapic intercalations. The
Dursztyn Formation (Lower Tithonian, 10 m thick) consists
of pink biomicrites and biosparites with abundant coquina
layers (named as the Rogo¿a Member in Birkenmajer, l.c.).
This part of the sequence yielded numerous crinoid calyxes
and columnalia, ammonite nuclei, aptychi and brachiopods
(Pygope janitor, Pygope diphya (Colom), Nucleata bouei
Zeuschner and Rhynchonella agassizi (Zeuschner)). The
surfaces of some shell remnants (especially in beds 0, 1 and
7) bear encrusting skeletons of comensalic animals including
serpulid worms.
Taxonomy
Subfamily Spirorbinae Chamberlin 1919
Genus Spirorbis Daudin 1800
Spirorbis imprimus nov. species
(Pl. I: Fig. 4)
Holotype: The specimen No. Z-22 010, collection of the
Slovak National Museum (Natural History Department,
Bratislava), Pl. I: Fig. 4.
Fig. 1. A sketch map of the area investigated in the framework of Slovakia (left upper corner) and the surroundings of the iaèik Klippe
in the Biela Voda Valley between Vieska-Bezdedov and Dohòany villages with the principal geological situation.
NEW UPPER JURASSIC SERPULIDS FROM PIENINY KLIPPEN BELT 411
Stratum typicum: Dursztyn Limestone Formation,
Rogo¿a Breccia Member, lower Tithonian, Late Jurassic.
Locus typicus: iaèik Klippe above Vieska-Bezdedov
village near Púchov.
Material: Complete specimen cemented on inner aptychus
valve surface, two other incomplete specimens (Z-22 011a,
Z-22 013), two imprints of base (Z-22 011b, Z-22 012).
Diagnosis: Species of Spirorbis Daudin with planispiral
tube cemented along all length of the base. The tube has four
coils, the aperture is funnell-shaped.
Description: The tube is minute, planispirally coiled. The
posterior part of the tube is composed of the first coil, the other
parts consist of second to fourth coiles. The anterior part is very
short (one half of the fourth coil) having an aperture. The coils
of the tube are attached firmly to each other. The diameter of
the circular tube attains 0.6 mm at the posterior part, but 1.2 to
1.4 mm near the aperture. The lumen is circular in shape. Tube
wall thickness varies from 0.20.3 mm. The surface of the tube
is quite smooth: only the dorsal side bears a longitudinal ridge
extending along its whole length. the cellular layer of serpulids
is weak and developed under the tube only.
Remarks and relationships: The species resembles sev-
eral primitive species of the Rotularia Defrance (Parsch
1956), but its aperture is not free. The ending of Rotularia
species is situated at the apertural end: it is free, being not
connected with other length of the tube.
Stratigraphical range: Tithonian, Upper Jurassic.
Locality: iaèik Klippe above the Vieska-Bezdedov vil-
lage near Púchov, Czorsztyn Ridge Zone of the Pieniny Klip-
pen Belt.
Serpula sp.
Material: Five incomplete imprints of the tubes on the
surface of a brachiopod (Pygope sp., specimen Z-22014) am-
monite shells and aptychi (Punctaptychus sp., specimens No.
Z-22015 to Z-22019) valves. They are deposited in the Nat-
ural History Department of the Slovak National Museum in
Bratislava.
Description: Imprints of tubes are shallow in transversal
cross-section (about 1.5 mm), one is curved irregularly. The
rest of serpulid cellular layer is very thin.
Remarks and relations: Specimens resemble imprints of
Serpula prolifera Goldfuss (see Parsch 1956 for comparison),
but the cellular layer of the latter species is weaker.
Stratigraphical range: As the above mentioned species.
Paleoecology
Rogo¿a Member shelly (coquinal) limestones of the Dursz-
tyn Formation contain extremely abundant fossils, consisting
mainly of small ammonites, aptychi, brachiopods and crinoids,
belemnites, echinoids, bivalves and gastropods, the above
mentioned findings of fish teeths and solitary corals. Some
parts of the coquina are richer in crinoid calices (ítt 1987),
other in columnaliids. These coquinas represent one of the
shallowest environments within the Dursztyn Fm. deposition-
ary area. In the Rogoznik area in the Pieniny Mts., these beds
are penetrated by younger sedimentary dykes (Wierzbowski in
B¹k et al. 1997).
Fig. 2. Schematic cross-section through the iaèik Klippe, Kruhy Hill above the village of Vieska-Bezdedov. The numbers denote the
sampling sites (taken in 1 m distance).
412 ZIEGLER
and MICHALÍK
Findings of the encrusting serpulids on the outer surface of
ammonite shells can be interpreted as remains of symbiotic
epizoans. On the other hand, their situation on the inner sur-
faces of ammonite shells, on inner surfaces of aptychi and,
especially, of brachiopod shells indicates their settling on
empty, dead specimens.
If compared to deep-water form (see definition of Ager
1965), the pygopids from the Czorsztyn Ridge show a
juvenile shape, characterized by short, diverging
anterolateral lobes with a straight lateral commissure
(Michalík 1996). These shells were regarded by Krobicki
(1994) as opportunistic forms. Epizoan overgrowths on their
shell surfaces confirms a neritic character of their habitat.
Conclusions
1. A new species, the Spirorbis imprimus sp.n. from the
Rogo¿a Breccia was described. These unique findings add to
our knowledge on the Upper Jurassic serpulid fauna of the
Paleoeuropean Margin and on neritic benthic assemblages of
that age.
Plate I: Serpulid tubes of the Spirorbis imprimus nov. sp. from the iaèik Klippe. Fig. 1. A tube cemented on the ammonite nucleus surface,
specimen No. Z-220 13; Fig. 2. Two serpulids cemented on inner surface of an aptychus shell, spec. No. 220 11-a and -b; Fig. 3. A tube ce-
mented on ammonite nucleus surface, specimen No. Z-220 12; Fig. 4. Serpulid tube of the Spirorbis imprimus nov. sp. (holotype), cement-
ed on inner surface of an aptychus shell, specimen No. Z-220 10. Magnification of all figures is uniform, the scale bar is equal to 3 milime-
ters. Photos: H. Brodnianska.
NEW UPPER JURASSIC SERPULIDS FROM PIENINY KLIPPEN BELT 413
2. The occurrence of the epifaunal serpulids encrusting
fragments of ammonoid and brachiopod shells confirms a
neritic character of the sedimentation.
Acknowledgments: Our thanks belong to Prof. M. Miík
(Bratislava) and to Prof. O. Dragastan (Bucharest) for
stimulating discussion and inspiring comments. We are indebted
to Dr. D. Reháková (Bratislava) for estimating the
biostratigraphy and microfacies of the profile. Finally, we
acknowledge to the Joint Grant Agency of the Ministry of
Education and of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for its
supporting our research (Grant VEGA 4076).
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