Megacanthopora Moore, 1929

Ernst, Andrej, Wyse Jackson, Patrick N. & Aretz, Markus, 2015, Bryozoan fauna from the Mississippian (Visean) of Roque Redonde (Montagne Noire, southern France), Geodiversitas 37 (2), pp. 151-213 : 178-180

Genus Megacanthopora Moore, 1929

Neorhombopora Shishova, 1964: 55 .

TYPE SPECIES. — Megacanthopora fallacis Moore, 1929 by monotypy. Graham Formation (Pennsylvanian) ; Texas, USA .

DIAGNOSIS. — Branched colonies with wide exozone (one-third to two-third of the branch radius). Autozooecia with oval apertures and irregularly thickened walls in the exozone, diverging at angles of 45° from the axis, intersecting the colony surface at angles of 80- 90°. Longitudinal arrangement of autozooecia irregular. Diaphragms complete, rare, occurring only in the exozone. Metazooecia rare to common. Acanthostyles uncommon. Aktinotostyles abundant, generally closely spaced, arising in the exozone. Autozooecial walls laminated, containing mural spines.

OCCURRENCE. —Lower Carboniferous – Upper Permian; worldwide.

COMPARISON

Megacanthopora Moore, 1929 differs from Rhombopora Meek, 1872 in having abundant metazooecia.

REMARKS

Astrova (1978), Dunaeva (1973), and Gorjunova (1985, 1996) assigned this genus to the Stenoporidae (Trepostomida) . Blake (1983: 579-580) placed it in the Rhomboporidae ( Rhabdomesina , Cryptostomata ), and put the genus Neorhombopora Shishova, 1964 to the genus Megacanthopora Moore, 1929 , because the type species Rhombopora crassa Ulrich, 1884 possesses acanthostyles.