Sponges and Bryozoans

CARRERA MARCELO G.

Ordovician fossils of Argentina

Secretaria de Ciencia y Tecnología Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2003; p. 155 - 186

Sponges are one of the most remarkable features of the Argentine Precordilleran limestones. Recent discoveries of sponges in Famatina and Puna suggest that sponges also occur as minor components in the Ordovician silicoclastic basins of Argentina. Argentinean sponges are one of the most important Ordovician associations recorded to date. Known Ordovician occurrences of sponge faunas have been described from Western North America in Nevada, Utah, California and Alaska (Bassler 1941, Johns 1994, Rigby et al. 1988), Eastern North America, Tennessee, Virginia, Quebec, Newfoundland and the Arctic Canada (Raymond and Okulitch 1940, Rigby and Desrochers, 1995), South China (Liu et al., 1997), Australia (Rigby and Webby, 1988) and Baltica (Hacht and Rhebergen, 1997). By the Early and Middle Ordovician all these regions, including the Argentine Precordillera, were located in tropical and subtropical areas.