Iberopora bodeuri GRANIER & BERTHOU 2002 (incertae sedis) from the Plassen Formation (Kimmeridgian–Berriasian) of the Tethyan Realm

Abstract

Iberopora bodeuri GRANIER & BERTHOU 2002, formerly knownas “crust problematicum” (SCHMID, 1996) is described from thePlassen Formation (Kimmeridgian–Berriasian) of the NorthernCalcareous Alps (NCA). Here, it occurs either as an incrustation oncorals/stromatoporoids or it forms nodular masses (“solenoporoidmorphotype”). It is typically found in the fore-reef facies of theplatform margin, and (upper) slope deposits where autochthonousdasycladales are absent. Water turbulence appears to control themorphological development of Iberopora. Thus, flat crusts appear inless agitated settings. The crusts are almost always accompanied bycalcareous sponges/sclerosponges and abundant micro-encrusters,mostly Koskinobullina socialis CHERCHI & SCHROEDER and“Tubiphytes” morronensis CRESCENTI. The stratigraphic rangeof Iberopora known to date is Oxfordian–Berriasian. In additionto the Northern Calcareous Alps, it has been reported from theepicontinental area of NW-Germany, the northern margin of thePenninic and Tethyan ocean (Slovakia, Switzerland, Spain, Poland,Portugal) and the southern Tethyan domain (Greece, Romania,Yugoslavia). Until other morphological elements (e.g. reproductiveorgans or protoconch) are found, its systematic position remainsuncertain. Currently, it is considered questionably to be an ancestralrhodophyceae or acervulinid-like foraminifera.