Lower Famennian phytoplankton from the Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland Paweł Filipiak Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, PL 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland abstract article info Article history: Received 21 August 2008 Received in revised form 10 June 2009 Accepted 19 June 2009 Available online 2 July 2009 Keywords: Lower Famennian Holy Cross Mountains phytoplankton Acritarcha Prasinophyta taxonomy A rich phytoplankton assemblage and low diversity miospore microflora is described from the Lower Famennian deposits of the Kowala Quarry, Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland. This assemblage is assigned to the Pw acritarcha zone, which is correlated with the late triangularis–crepida standard conodont zones based on appearance of the acritarch Puteoscortum williereae. Comparison of the present palynological results with well-documented data from Belgium clearly indicates differences in marine microflora composition in both regions. The important taxa Visbysphaera (?) occultata, Ephelopalla media, and Pala- canthus tripus in Belgium are absent in the samples from the Holy Cross Mountains and by contrast, the phytoplankton frequent in Poland (Lophosphaeridium, Dictyotidium or Cymatiosphaera) are rare in Belgium. The taxonomical difference between the Holy Cross Mountains and Belgium palynoflora may probably reflect environmental differences: offshore and more proximal environmental conditions respectively. Three new species (Leiofusa turnauae sp. nov., Lophosphaeridium irregularis sp. nov. and Veryhachium? kowalae sp. nov.) have been formally instituted and two new taxa (Centrasphaeridium sp. A and Centrasphaeridium sp. B) are left in open nomenclature. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction An abundant, diverse, and well-preserved phytoplankton assem- blage has been recorded from the Lower Famennian deposits (triangularis–crepida standard conodont zones) in the Kowala Quarry, Holy Cross Mountains (HCM), Central Poland (Fig. 1A). Phytoplankton from the Lower Famennian of southern and central Poland are poorly known and these new data enrich our knowledge about the microflora from the Holy Cross Mountains, following two critical global events: the Upper Kellwasser and Nehden (e.g. Walliser, 1996; House, 2002; Ning et al., 2008). This is particularly pertinent in light of problems highlighted by Jablonski (2005) concerning biotic crises and the factors controlling rate of recovery and evolutionary directions following environmentally stressful episodes in earth history. During the Famennian epoch, with the global collapse of mainly coral– stromatoporoid and other faunal groups (see Walliser, 1996), the pelagic fauna (conodonts and ammonoids) reached their peak of ecological success in development during their entire history (see Dzik, 2006). Meanwhile, the latest palynological research on the Frasnian–Famennian (F/F) boundary interval in the HCM has revealed that the microfloras did not change drastically during the F/F crisis (Filipiak, 2002). Similar conclusions were obtained from Belgium (Streel et al., 2000) and more recently from Germany (Hartkopf- Fröder et al., 2007). Moreover the Famennian is also the last epoch of the ‘old type’ phytoplankton (e.g. Riegel, 2008; Strother, 2008). From the beginning of the Carboniferous Period ‘old phytoplankton’ taxa are drastically reduced (e.g. Strother, 1996, 2008; Filipiak, 2005), creating a new era in phytoplankton development, referred to as the “phytoplankton blackout” by Riegel (2008). Therefore, the main aim of the present study is to document phytoplankton assemblages, from the interval just after the F/F crisis (e.g. Walliser, 1996; House, 2002) obtained from the HCM and compare the results with other well- documented sections. Lower Famennian rocks are well exposed on the eastern wall of the active Kowala Quarry (Fig. 1B). This well-known quarry is located in the western region of the HCM and is situated in the eastern part of the Gałęzice–Kowala Syncline (Fig. 1A). The biostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy of this section have been described and discussed in detail by Szulczewski (1971, 1995), Racki et al. (2002), Racki and Baliński (1998) and Dzik (2006). Most of the previous palynological studies, especially in Kowala Quarry, have focused on the uppermost part of the Famennian. However, pioneering acritarch research from the Upper Famennian in the Łagów area was done by Górka (1974). Turnau (in Turnau and Racki, 1999) described older palynomorphs and palynofacies from the Givetian of the Bodzentyn Syncline (Fig. 1A). Other palynological investigations have been mainly from the Devonian/Carboniferous boundary interval, and were documen- ted by Turnau (1985, 1990 — data from the Kowala IG1 borehole) and Filipiak (2004, 2005). The latter author provided microfloral data from the trench situated close to the northern border of the Kowala Quarry (Fig. 1B). Palynofacies studies from the F/F boundary of the Płucki and Kowala area were described by Filipiak (2002). Combined palynolo- gical and geochemical data was recently obtained from the uppermost Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 157 (2009) 326–338 E-mail address: filipiak@us.edu.pl. 0034-6667/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2009.06.006 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/revpalbo