Hindeastraea White, 1888

Baron-Szabo, Rosemarie C., 2008, Dendrophylliina, Caryophylliina, Fungiina, Microsolenina, and Stylinina, Zootaxa 1952, pp. 1-244 : 160

Genus Hindeastraea White, 1888

(= Plesiosiderastraea Tchéchmédjiéva, 1975 . Type species. P. garloica Tchéchmédjiéva, 1975 , Upper Campanian of Bulgaria).

Type species. Hindeastraea discoidea White, 1888 Maastrichtian of Texas ( Navarro Formation , USA) .

Diagnosis. Colonial, massive, cerioid. Septa compact, with rare pores peripherally, numerous spiniform granules laterally. Anastomosis present. Columella spongy-papillose. Synapticulae present. Wall septothecal-synapticulothecal. Septothecal wall formed by inflexion and thickening of peripheral ends of septa. Endothecal dissepiments vesicular to subhorizontal.

Remarks. Examniation of excellent photographic material provided by Jacob Leloux (Leiden) of the type material of Plesiosiderastraea garloica Tchéchmédjiéva and re-investigation of the syntypes of Hindeastraea discoidea White revealed that they completely correspond in all skeletal elements. Due to the small size of the syntypes of Hindeastraea discoidea White, 1888 , the presence of sparse synapticulae and peripherally occurring septal pores have been overlooked for a long time. Moreover, in the type specimen of Plesiosiderastraea garloica Tchéchmédjiéva endothecal developmentare not as richly developed as stated by Tchéchmédjiéva (1975, p. 35), thus closely resembling the endotheca in Hindeastraea . Therefore, the two genera are considered to be synonymous.