PYRAMISPONGIIDAE Kozur & Mostler, 1978

Suzuki, Noritoshi, Caulet, Jean-Pierre & Dumitrica, Paulian, 2021, A new integrated morpho- and molecular systematic classification of Cenozoic radiolarians (Class Polycystinea) - suprageneric taxonomy and logical nomenclatorial acts, Geodiversitas 43 (15), pp. 405-573 : 444

Family PYRAMISPONGIIDAE Kozur & Mostler, 1978

sensu O’Dogherty (1994)

Pyramispongiidae Kozur & Mostler, 1978: 168 . — O’Dogherty 1994: 304. — De Wever et al. 2001: 165-166 ( sensu emend. ). —

Afanasieva et al. 2005: S283 [in Order Pyramidata ]. — Afanasieva & Amon 2006: 124.

TYPE GENUS. — Pyramispongia Pessagno, 1973: 78 [type species by original designation: Pyramispongia magnifica Pessagno, 1973: 80 ].

INCLUDED GENUS (CENOZOIC ONLY). — Pyramispongia Pessagno, 1973: 78 (= Nodotetraedra synonymized by Baumgartner et al. 1995: 464).

DIAGNOSIS. — According to O’Dogherty (1994: 304), the family includes tetrahedral spumellarians with very spongy meshwork, having only a tetrahedral cortical shell.

STRATIGRAPHIC OCCURRENCE. — Late Tithonian-Late Paleocene.

REMARKS

The Pyramispongiidae were once placed in the superfamily Sponguroidea by De Wever et al. (2001: 166). The exact taxonomic position of the family Pyramispongiidae needs to be reexamined in the future as the paratype of Pyramispongia magnifica Pessagno, 1973 , the type species of the representative genus ( Pessagno 1973: pl. 20, fig. 1), possesses an obvious rigid cortical shell with an empty space between the rigid cortical shell and the outer spongy shell. The family Intermediellidae Lahm, 1984 was questionably synonymized with the Pyramispongiidae in De Wever et al. (2001) . Later the “ Intermediellidae ” were transferred to the family Tritrabidae Baumgartner, 1980 as a subfamily ( Dumitrica et al. 2013: 353-354). To exclude the Intermediellidae , we follow the definition of O’Dogherty et al. (2009b: 304).