PSEUDOSATURNIFORMIDAE Kozur & Mostler 1979

Dumitrică, Paulian, 2024, New Middle Triassic Bell-Shaped Nassellarian Radiolaria From Alpine And Carpathian Areas, Acta Palaeontologica Romaniae 20 (1), pp. 51-75 : 54

Family PSEUDOSATURNIFORMIDAE Kozur & Mostler 1979 , emend. herein Type genus: Pseudosaturniforma Kozur & Mostler, 1979 , emend. Tekin & Mostler, 2005

Emended diagnosis. Middle to Upper Triassic bell-shaped dicyrtid nassellarians consisting of a globular cephalis with or without apical horn and ventral spine, as external extention of the apical and ventral rays of the initial spicule, and a truncate conical thorax. Initial spicule with primary and secondary lateral rays not extended outside, and the dorsal ray absent or present. Usually, distal end of shell with a circumferential ring.

Remarks. Until present, the family was represented by only the type genus. With the two new genera - Silicotintinnabulum n. gen. and Colpotrelus n. gen. and their species, both older than the already known Triassic species of this type, I enriched the knowledge of the diversity and evolution of this family. This required an emendation of its diagnosis after the first one of the type species by Tekin & Mostler (2005) based on the discovery of a new late Ladinian species of Pseudosaturniforma ( P. ladinica ) in the Dinarides of Bosnia and Hercegovina. In their emended diagnosis they considered that this genus may also have a three-bladed apical horn and a similarly three-bladed ventral and primary lateral spines, morphology not known before at the late Triassic species of this family. Moreover, they also considered that the genus Pseudosaturniforma is a dicyrtid, not a monocyrtid nassellarian as defined in the original definition by Kozur & Mostler (1979), an opinion with which I completely agree.

Stratigraphic range. Upper Anisian (Illyrian) to Lower or Middle Norian as far as known.