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Bioerosive structures from Miocene marine mobile‐substrate communities in southern Spain, and description of a new sponge boring
Author(s) -
SANTOS ANA,
MAYORAL EDUARDO,
BROMLEY RICHARD G.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
palaeontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1475-4983
pISSN - 0031-0239
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2011.01040.x
Subject(s) - bioerosion , trace fossil , paleontology , geology , neogene , sponge , polychaete , outcrop , ichnology , sponge spicule , ichnofacies , oceanography , sedimentary depositional environment , biology , ecology , reef , structural basin
Neogene palaeoshore sediments are abundantly represented along the Mediterranean coast of Iberia. An outcrop north of the Sierra Tejeda, named La Resinera, exposes concentrations of pebbles and boulders of marble, comprising an upper Miocene marine beach deposit. The high diversity of bioerosion trace fossils present in these boulders includes structures produced by polychaete annelids, demosponges, echinoids and endolithic bivalves, which indicate a shallow shoreface environment. The ichnotaxa represented are Maeandropolydora sulcans , Caulostrepsis taeniola , Entobia geometrica , Entobia ovula , Circolites kotoncensis , Gastrochaenolites torpedo , Gastrochaenolites lapidicus , Gastrochaenolites ornatus and Gastrochaenolites turbinatus . The borings are Tortonian (late Miocene) in age. Also present, and particularly abundant, are large sponge borings that have a single chamber from which radiating canals emerge. This trace fossil is designated as Entobia resinensis isp. nov.