Teleostomata rackii gen. et sp. nov.: an acritarch from the Devonian (Givetian) of south-central Poland

Abstract

The acritarch Teleostomata rackii gen. et sp. nov. is described and illustrated from the Middle Devonian Skały Beds that outcrop at Miłoszów, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. At the type locality, its stratigraphical range is within the ‘Geminospora’ extensa (Ex) Miospore Zone (= hemiansatus–varcus Conodont Zones), which correspond to the early and middle Givetian. The same acritarch has been illustrated from the Eifelian strata of the Gondwanan shelf in Tunisia, but it was unnamed at the time. This acritarch from Miłoszów can be distinguished from other phytoplankton genera of tetrahedral shape because of its broad processes with distal pore-like openings.

Keywords:

• acritarchs
• Devonian
• phytoplankton
• Holy Cross Mountains
• taxonomy
• Poland

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. A. Baliński for valuable comments and help during the fieldwork. We also thank A. Halamski and A. Pisarzowska for important notes and comments concerning the local geology and for providing the rock samples from the M2 section.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NCN Grant no. 2017/27/N/ST10/01699 (for M. Kondas, University of Silesia in Katowice) and NCN grant no. 2016/23/B/ST10/02744 (for A. Baliński, Polish Academy of Sciences).

Notes on contributors

Marcelina Kondas

MARCELINA KONDAS was born in 1990 and is a PhD student in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice. Her research interests are in Devonian palynology, including palynostratigraphy, palaeoecology, palaeogeography and palynofacies analysis.

Paweł Filipiak

PAWEŁ FILIPIAK graduated in geology and received his PhD (1998) and habilitation (2011) in geology from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. His main research interests are currently the palaeopalynology and palaeobotany of Palaeozoic rocks (mainly Devonian and Carboniferous). He has held teaching and research positions at the University of Silesia in Katowice in the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Pierre Breuer

PIERRE BREUER is a palynologist with Saudi Aramco. After obtaining MSc degrees in geology and palaeontology from Liège, Belgium, and Lille, France, he received his PhD in geology from the Liège University in 2008. His PhD was focused on Devonian spores from northern Gondwana. He has been working for Saudi Aramco since 2008. His current studies include stratigraphy, palaeogeography and palaeoecology of palynological assemblages from the entire Palaeozoic and Mesozoic on the Arabian Plate.