Vitrimurella lata (Smitt, 1873)

(Fig. 23; Table 22)

Material examined. VMNH. no. 70635, 70636; USNM no. 1283249.

Description. Colony encrusting unilaminar (Fig. 23 A). Large, slightly convex zooids with smoothly calcified frontal wall with evenly spaced, depressed pores; lateral walls distinct, no marginal pores. Proximal to orifice is slightly raised peristome in form of a flattened, centrally joined costal collar. Autozooidal orifices slightly more than semicircular distally, shallowly V-shaped proximally, with curving round-edged condyles (Fig. 21 B, C, E). Ooecia endozooidal. Fertile zooids distinguished primarily by shallower, more transversely elliptical orifices, with longer condyles (Fig. 23 B, C, F). Frontal avicularia have been reported, but were absent in colonies from Oculina habitat .

Remarks. The species was recently placed in a new family, Vitrimurellidae, and genus (Winston et al. 2014). The name previously used for Recent species was based on a very different fossil genus, Tremoschizodina Duvergier, 1921 . Species of Vitrimurella have a gymnocystal frontal shield with depressed pores and a pair of joined costae closing the proximal edge of the orifice, suggesting that their ancestry is from a Trypostega -like form. The perforated ooecia of fertile zooids are probably homologous with those of Trypostega, but they are shorter an flatter (see Fig. 23 B).

Distribution. Reported from Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa.