The early Famennian (Late Devonian) conodonts natural assemblages from Holy Cross Mountains (Poland)

Two early Famennian natural assemblages of conodont elements were found in a marly shale bed within a limestone and shale sequence representing the Palmatolepis triangularis conodont zone at the Kowala quarry in the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. The most complete of these assemblages, identified as Ctenopolygnathus brevilamina, contained nine skeletally preserved elements and four imprints on the rock bedding plane. A peculiar aspect of the apparatus was the disposition of S-4 elements with respect to other S-array elements. Moreover, the denticles of S-4 elements were unusually robust and slightly twisted towards the caudal side, which may have resulted from a mode of food processing different from those of other conodonts known from natural assemblages. Moreover, the location of S-0 was not consistent with the hypothetical arrangements of similar apparatuses proposed by previous authors. The second assemblage, representing an unidentified palmatolepidid, contained scattered two fragmentary elements and four imprints.