Lepralia pedicularis Stoliczka, 1862

Zágoršek, Kamil & Gordon, Dennis P., 2014, Revision of the Oligocene bryozoan taxa described by Stoliczka (1862), with the description of a new genus of Bryocryptellidae, Geodiversitas 36 (4), pp. 541-564 : 552

“ Lepralia pedicularis Stoliczka, 1862 ” nomen dubium

( Fig. 4B )

Lepralia pedicularis Stoliczka, 1862: 84 , pl. 2, fig. 2.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Holotype of Lepralia pedicularis , registered as 1862/0022/0053.

DESCRIPTION

Colony robust, erect, bifurcating, exteriorly heavily secondarily calcified and rather densely perforated by tiny pores, some of which are in linear series. Obvious autozooecial boundaries are lacking although very thin, faint lines may be indicative; no other exterior features are visible. Interior view of a fracture shows parts of several elongate zooecial chambers with undersides of mixed frontal shields excluding orifices; each shows the internal openings of sparsely scattered lepralioid pseudopores and a small oval umbonuloid area of planar-spherulitic microstructure, bounded by a ring scar and in the centre of which is a foramen. Interzooecial communications via simple, uniporous pore.

REMARKS

Ŋe internal opening surrounded by a small umbonuloid area of exterior skeletal wall is highly distinctive. Ŋe only other known example at the present time is a species of Siphonicytara (Gordon & Taylor in press), from the Early Eocene of Chatham Island, New Zealand, which has an identical arrangement. Insofar as all other examined species of Siphonicytara Busk, 1884 have an ascopore, Gordon & Taylor interpreted the foramen as technically a spiraminal opening and that the genus evolved from a fully umbonuloid ancestor, perhaps resembling Beisselina Canu, 1913.

Lepralia pedicularis need not have belonged to a family Siphonicytaridae , however. Members of this monogeneric family were rooted in soft sediments and no known species has the same degree of robust secondary calcification. Adeonidae is a much more likely family, members of which include wholly umbonuloid and wholly lepralioid frontal shields;no species has yet been found with a skeletally mixed shield but it is highly likely that such species exist. Based on external appearance, similar colonies are produced by several genera in Miocene of the Paratethys. Ŋe most similar is the non-spiraminate adeonid Schizostomella grinzingensis David & Pouyet, 1974 , the branches of which are often heavily calcified proximally, gradually obliterating apertures and just leaving scattered pores and thin zooecial boundary lines as in L. pedicularis . Similarly, spiraminate fossil Reptadeonella cf. violacea ( Johnston, 1847) , as described by Zágoršek (2010), also produced heavily calcified parts of multilamellar colonies in which some orifices and spiramina become almost completely obliterated. Species of Reptadeonella , however, are all encrusting. Our conclusion is that Lepralia pedicularis is a presently indeterminable genus of adeonid and the species is nomen dubium.

Figures

FIG. 4. — A, Adeonellopsis pulchra (Stoliczka, 1862) n. comb., lectotype showing arrangement of autozooecia; B, interior view of holotype of Lepralia pedicularis showing elongate zooecial chambers with mixed frontal shields and scattered lepralioid pseudopores; due to the very poor preservation and the absence any other characteristic features described here as “Lepralia pedicularis Stoliczka, 1862” nomen dubium; C-G, Stoliczkella subovata (Stoliczka,1862) n. comb.;C, general view of lectotype;D, detail of three autozooecia showing deeply immersed apertures and a proximal pair of frontal areolar pores;E, autozooecial aperture showing a Y-shaped denticle;F, autozooecial aperture showing spiraminal openings produced by fusion of lateral processes, proximal to which is a suboral avicularium; G, interior of the autozooecium showing umbonuloid surface and primary aperture with slightly convex proximal margin. Scale bars:100 μm.