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First report of hexactinellid dictyosponges and other sponges from the Upper Mississippian Bangor Limestone, northwestern Alabama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

J. Keith Rigby  and
Richard Keyes Jr.
J. Keith Rigby
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602
Richard Keyes Jr.
Affiliation:
113 Oak Crest Drive, Huntsville, Alabama 35811
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Abstract

Dictyosponges from the Chesteran Bangor Limestone document the first known occurrence of these hexactinellids in Mississippian rocks of Alabama and their discovery adds information to the worldwide impoverished record of Lower Carboniferous Porifera. The sponges are generally fragmented and occur in marine, cross-bedded, sandy limestone and sandstone channel-fill lenses that occur up to 12 m above the base of the formation, above the Hartselle Sandstone. The reticulosid dictyosponges Dictyospongia(?) sp., Clathrospongia bangorensis n. sp., Clathrospongia(?) sp. A, Clathrospongia(?) sp. B, Thamnodictya(?) radiata n. sp., and Phragmodictya rugosa n. sp. are described. Previously, the lyssacinosid(?) hexactinellid Pileospongia lopados Rigby, Keyes, and Horowitz, 1979, was described from this region, from the slightly older Chesteran Monteagle Limestone, and its occurrence in the Bangor Limestone is the youngest yet discovered. In addition to the above hexactinellids, the demosponge Belemnospongia parmula Rigby, Keyes, and Horowitz, 1979, is questionably represented by a single impression in fine-grained sandstone of the Bangor Limestone.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 64 , Issue 6 , November 1990 , pp. 886 - 897
Copyright
Copyright © The Journal of Paleontology 

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