An early Tournaisian (Mississippian) bryozoan fauna from the Moravian Karst (Rhenohercynian Zone, Czech Republic)

Abstract

© 2017 Bryozoans are described from the lower Tournaisian of the Moravo-Silesian Zone (part of the Rhenohercynian Zone) of the Czech Republic for the first time. The studied fauna displays poor diversity and small size; it is represented by encrusting unilaminar and delicate branching growth habits. One species, Eridopora moravica, is new, and three other species are left in open nomenclature: Nikiforovella sp., Saffordotaxis sp., and ?Streblotrypella sp. Bryozoans found within calciturbidites of the Siphonodella sulcata and Siphonodella quadruplicata conodont zones inhabited originally the littoral zone at the southern margin of Laurussia. They indicate links between the eastern and western parts of the northern Palaeotethyan Siberian and Panthalassan realms.