Abstract
The encrusting microorganism Lithocodium (type species: Lithocodium aggregatum Elliott), widespread in Late Triassic–Middle Cretaceous shallow-marine carbonates of the Tethys realm, was interpreted in the past as a codiacean green alga, a lituolid foraminifer, calcimicrobial colonies, ulotrichalean green algae, or chambers of boring sponges. A re-study of the type material of L. aggregatum (in the sense of Elliott), stored in the British Museum (Natural History), revealed that this “species” has to be regarded as a calcimicrobial crust, infested by boring sponges (ichnotaxon Entobia).
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Acknowledgments
We thank the British Museum (Natural History), London, for the possibility to study the type material of Lithocodium aggregatum Elliott. We express our sincere gratitude to Baba Senowbari-Daryan (Erlangen University) for making available Triassic thin-sections. The authors warmly thank Ioan Bucur (Cluj-Napoca), Baba Senowbari-Daryan (Erlangen), and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments.
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Cherchi, A., Schroeder, R. Revision of the holotype of Lithocodium aggregatum Elliott, 1956 (Lower Cretaceous, Iraq): new interpretation as sponge–calcimicrobe consortium. Facies 59, 49–57 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0336-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0336-y