Radwañski, A. & Wysocka, A. 2001. Mass aggregation of Middle Miocene spine-coated echinoids Echinocardium and their integrated eco-taphonomy. Acta Geologica Polonica 51, 295-316.

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Publication

A unique "Fossillagerstätte" of spatangoid echinoids of the genus Echinocardium from the Middle Miocene (Badenian) sandy deposits of the Fore-Carpathian Depression, as exposed at Gleboviti (=Chlebowice) in the Ukraine, is characterised by a mass occurrence of tests often preserving their entire spine canopy, apparently unaffected by taphonomic filtering. These echinoids represent a new species, Echinocardium leopolitanum sp.nov., and are assumed to have had a similar mode of life as the extant, cosmopolitan species E. cordatum (Pennant, 1777), i.e. relatively deep burrowing and confined to the sublittoral. Violent storms and/or storm-generated currents are held responsible for stirring up the sand and for bringing live specimens, of all ontogenetic stages, to the surface upon which followed deposition of a heavy-loaded sediment from which they could not escape. Thus, specimens are interpreted to have been buried alive, with all spines attached. Mass aggregation of tests occurred either

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