Trace fossils from Late Carboniferous storm deposits, Upper Silesia Coal Basin, Poland

Eighteen ichnospecies (two new) referred to 17 ichnogenera (one new) as well as formally unclassified equilibrichnia, fugichnia and faecal pellets constitute a diverse and well-preserved invertebrate trace fossil suite present in storm deposits within the Franciszka X marine horizon of the Hruov Beds (Late Carboniferous Namurian A, Pendleian) as exposed in the Kozłowa Góra quarry, Upper Silesia, Poland. The new forms are Fimbritubichnus biserialis igen. et isp. n., which is interpreted as the work of a deposit-feeding bellerophont gastropod, and Cylindrichnus candelabrus isp. n. An emended diagnosis of the ichnospecies Parahaentzschelinia ardeliais given. Presence of the trace fossils marks a marine influence, so that they can be utilized to discern marine versus nonmarine deposition within the Paralic Series of the Upper Silesia Coal Basin in which other paleontological evidence is scanty or lacking.