Upper Triassic (Norian) hypercalcified sponges from the Musandam Peninsula (United Arab Emirates and Oman)

Abstract

SupercalciWed sponges, including sphinctozoans, inozoans, chaetetids, spongiomorphids, occurring in Upper Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian) shallow-marine limestones of Musandam Mountains in United Arab Emirates (UAE), are described. The following taxa were determined: sphinctozoans: Hajarispongia osmani Senowbari-Daryan and Yancey, Nevadathalamia arabica n. sp., Nevadathalamia conica n. sp., Fanthalamia milahaensis n. sp., Iranothalamia incrustans (Boiko), Cinnabaria regularis n. sp.; inozoans: Cavsonella triassica n. sp., MolengraaYa regularis Vinassa de Regny, Peronidella? sp., Circopora cf. caucasica Moiseev, Circopora? sp.; spongiomorphids: Spongiomorpha sp.; chaetetids: Lovcenipora chaetetiformis Vinassa de Regny, Lovcenipora musandamensis n. sp., Lovcenipora sp., chaetetid sponge gen. et sp. indet. The most abundant sponge in the studied material is Nevadathalamia arabica n. sp. The described sponge association of the Arabian shelf (Musandam Mountains) shows close aYnity to the sponge association known from age-equivalent terranes in the Panthalassa Ocean (Sonora Mountains in Mexico; Pilot Mountains in Nevada, USA), but is remarkably diVerent from sponge associations in carbonates bordering the Tethys. This diVerence goes along with the biogeography of wallowaconchid bivalves and is most likely attributed to climatic, palaeogeographic or oceanographic factors.

Microfacies and depositional setting of the Upper Triassic mid-oceanic atoll-type carbonates of the Sambosan Accretionary Complex (southern Kyushu, Japan)

“…The overall sedimentology and biostratigraphy of Triassic deposits are well established in the western Tethyan realm and various studies including those dealing with paleogeography and geodynamic models are known: Italy and Sicily (Miconnet et al 1983;Zaninetti et al 1984;Senowbari-Daryan et al 1985;Carcione et al 2003), Greece (Schäfer and Senowbari-Daryan 1982), Austria (Hohenegger and Piller 1975;Enos and Samankassou 1998;Bernecker et al 1999), Slovakian and Polish Carpathians (Michalik 1982;Gazdzicki 1983), Oman (Bernecker 1996(Bernecker , 2005Weidlich et al 1993;SenowbariDaryan et al 1999), Arab Emirates Senowbari-Daryan and Maurer 2008), Indonesia (Al-Shaibani et al 1983;Villeneuve et al 1994;Martini et al 1997Martini et al , 2004, Philippines (Kiessling and Flügel 2000) and Australia (Kristan-Tollmann and Gramann 1992;Zaninetti et al 1992). Triassic reefs are particularly well studied (e.g., Kanmera 1964;Flügel 1981;SenowbariDaryan 1981, 1982;Flügel 1982Flügel , 2002Flügel and Stanley 1984;Stanley and Gonzalez-Leon 1997;SenowbariDaryan et al 1999;Bernecker et al 1999;Kiessling et al 1999).…”

Hypercalcified segmented sponges (“sphinctozoans”) from the Upper Triassic (Norian) reef boulders of Taurus Mountains (southern Turkey)

“…462/2a;Senowbari-Daryan and Bernecker 2009). Senowbari-Daryan and Stanley (1988) described C. wahleni from the Norian Martin Bridge Formation (Oregon, USA), which has, like the new species from Turkey, sieve-like pore plates at the outer walls and is assigned to the genus Hajarispongia Senowbari- Daryan and Maurer (2008). Boiko (in Boiko et al 1991: pl.…”