THE FIRST RECORD OF AN ENDOBIONT PROBLEMATICS IN THE FAMENNIAN (LATE DEVONIAN) OF VOLHYN-PODILLA (WESTERN UKRAINE)

Abstract

The aim of the work is to document the first findings of endobiont problematics, discovered in the inside of cyrtospiriferoid brachiopod`s shell Wenjukovispirifer brodi (Wenjukov, 1886) from the Lower Famennian deposits of Volhyn-Podillian plate (south-western segment of the East-European platform, western Ukraine). Several levels filled with remains of fossilized brachiopods were found in the deposits of the Sadovian horizon. By age they are correlated with conodont zones triangularis-crepida (Early Famennian). It is them the indicated problematics are found. Through the glassy translucent layer in the wall of this cyrtospiriferoid shell, a chaotic accumulation of pellets of almost identical size and shape was revealed, which were interpreted as microcoprolites of an unknown organism, possibly an annelid worm. Ther have been no such observations or facts, so associated with brachiopod shells in the Devonian section of Ukraine, that were studied by the author from the top of the Silurian to the base of the Carboniferous system. However, according to oral reports of PhD Dernov V. (Geologsical Institut of the NAS of Ukraine), similar accumulations of microcoprolites have been found in the shells of Pennsylvannian gastropods and in the living chambers of nautilids in the Paleogenian of Donetz basin (eastern Ukraine).The first old records of this type of problematics from the Bohemian Ordovician, Lower and Middle Devonian deposits are briefly presented. The principles of their classifications are outlined also. Taking into account the identity of the described accumulations of coprolites with those from the Lower Paleozoic of the Bohemian massif (located south of the city of Prague), a conclusion was made about the lack of special significance of this problematic for solving the tasks of stratigraphy and correlations.