Stiboriopsis Vaughan, 1899

Baron-Szabo, Rosemarie C., 2008, Dendrophylliina, Caryophylliina, Fungiina, Microsolenina, and Stylinina, Zootaxa 1952, pp. 1-244 : 119-120

Genus Stiboriopsis Vaughan, 1899

Type species. Stiboriopsis jamaicaensis Vaughan, 1899 , Campanian (-?Maastrichtian) of Jamaica .

Diagnosis. Colonial, massive, subthamnasterioid-subplocoid to meandroid. Gemmation by septal budding and fission. Corallites isolated or arranged in short meandroid series. Costosepta compact, with rare pores, confluent to nonconfluent, dentate to granulate laterally. Paliform structures can be present before principle septa. Columella trabecular or rudimentary. Endothecal dissepiments abundant, corallites united by their costae or separated by exothecal dissepiments.

ing to Alloiteau (1957), this genus belongs to the Faviidae . As pointed out by Baron-Szabo & González-León (1999, p. 485) the synonymy with Trechmannaria Wells seems questionable, because Stiboriopsis Vaughan is described as having rather compact structures, but Trechmannaria represents a form that, e.g., has corallite centres which are linked by porous lamellae. Moreover, all additional skeletal features of Trechmannaria Wells closely correspond to the ones of Astraraea Felix (see Remarks of Astraraea Felix ).

Stiboriopsis Vaughan resembles montlivaltiids and faviids in having thick, straight septa and similar microstructure, but is distinguished from them by: (1) having large but rare septal pores (as shown in the illustration in Vaughan 1899, pl. 38, fig. 4), (2) variable ornamentation on the inner ends of septa and (3) trabecular structures in the centre of the corallite (true columella or trabecular prolongations of the inner ends of septa).

The diagnosis given above slightly differs from the original by Vaughan (1899, p. 237) and is based on the features seen in the figure of the type specimen in Vaughan (1899, pl. 38, fig. 4).

Text-Fig. 25 Stiboriopsis jamaicaensis Vaughan, 1899 . A, Maastrichtian of Madagascar (holotype of Andemantastraea ambatryensis Alloiteau 1951a as figured in Alloiteau 1951a), cross view of colony, scale bar: 4 mm; B, type material as figured in Vaughan (1899), Campanian (-?Maastrichtian) and Eocene of Jamaica (Blue Mountain series), cross view of colony, scale bar: 4 mm.