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Middle Permian sponge–microencruster reefal facies in the mid-Panthalassan Akiyoshi atoll carbonates: observations on a limestone slab

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Abstract

A Murgabian (Middle Permian) reef-core facies in the Akiyoshi Limestone, southwest Japan, which is of mid-Panthalassan atoll origin, is here described from a limestone slab. The reef-core facies is composed mainly of boundstone with submarine cement and matrix. The reef-building community is characterized by a high-diversity biota, including sponges (sphinctozoans, inozoans, and chaetetids), bryozoans (fistuliporids and cryptostomates), crinoids and various microencrusters (Tubiphytes, Archaeolithoporella, reticular and laminar microbialites, encrusting foraminifers and problematic laminar red algae). Among them, sphinctozoan sponges and microencrusters such as Tubiphytes and microbialites are the most abundant. This community is similar to a time-equivalent lagoonal mound (patch-reef) biota on the Akiyoshi atoll in terms of the dominant sponges, Tubiphytes and microbialites, but differs in the additional occurrence of bryozoans, Archaeolithoporella and encrusting foraminifers, which probably preferred higher-energy conditions in the reef-core environment. Among temporally changing reef-building communities on the Carboniferous–Permian Akiyoshi atolls, the sponge-dominated reefal community described here flourished on mid-Panthalassan atolls in a relatively stable warm-water environment during a Middle Permian post-deglacial period.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate the assistance of K. Ando (Ando Marmi Ltd.) in preparing the slab sample and for providing information on the locality. We are also grateful to Editor-in-Chief, Maurice Tucker, and two anonymous journal reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a research scholarship from the Limestone Association of Japan and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 25400503 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, 305-8567, Japan

    Tsutomu Nakazawa & Toshie Igawa

  2. Department of Earth System Science, Faculty of Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, 814-0180, Japan

    Katsumi Ueno

  3. Akiyoshi-dai Museum of Natural History, Shuho-cho, Mine, 754-0511, Japan

    Masayuki Fujikawa

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  1. Tsutomu Nakazawa
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Correspondence to Tsutomu Nakazawa.

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Nakazawa, T., Igawa, T., Ueno, K. et al. Middle Permian sponge–microencruster reefal facies in the mid-Panthalassan Akiyoshi atoll carbonates: observations on a limestone slab. Facies 61, 15 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-015-0443-7

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