A new Late Ordovician echinoderm Lagerstätte in the Prague Basin (Barrandian area, Czech Republic)

 

Authors: Fatka O, Nardin E, Budil P, Nohejlová M, Zicha O, Pittet B, Mikuláš R, Aubrechtová M, Polechová M, Vodička J, Saleh F, Lefebvre B

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 100, issue 2; pages: 95 - 122; Received 4 April 2024; Accepted in revised form 23 June 2025; Online 13 July 2025

Keywords: Central Bohemia, echinoderm Lagerstätte, Letná Formation, Ordovician, taphonomy, ecology,

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Abstract

A new Late Ordovician locality yielding abundant, remarkably preserved skeletal remains of marine invertebrates was excavated at the southern slope of the Blýskava hill near Chrustenice, Barrandian area, Czech Republic. The fossil association represents a new echinoderm Lagerstätte dominated by mass occurrences of fully articulated specimens of the solutan Dendrocystites barrandei Bather, 1913, associated with undescribed asteroids, coronates, crinoids, diploporitans, the enigmatic genus Hexedriocystis Sumrall & Zamora, 2011, rhombiferans, and stylophorans. In several levels, abundant articulated ophiuroids were found. The associated skeletal fauna comprises common, usually disarticulated remains of trilobites, abundant but poorly preserved brachiopods, as well as bivalves, small bryozoans, cephalopods, conulariids, foraminiferans, gastropods, machaeridians, and rare tentaculitoid tubeworms. The brachiopod fauna corresponds to the lower part of the Bicuspina Community. Ichnologically, the locality represents a Teichichnus Ichnofacies and a depauperate Cruziana Ichnofacies. The skeletal fauna commonly shows articulated remains of abundant organisms that were either living or freshly killed at the time of deposition. The assemblage represents an echinoderm Lagerstätte with prevailing specimens of the genus Dendrocystites Barrande, 1887.