Gemellipora eburnea Smitt, 1873

(Fig. 10I)

Gemellipora eburnea Smitt, 1873: 35, pl. 7, figs 152-156. — Harmer 1957: 994, pl. 69, figs 28-29. — Moissette 1988: 190, pl. 30, figs 6, 9, 12.

Gemellaria punctata – Seguenza 1880: 127, pl. 12, figs 14-14a. — Neviani 1900: 148, pl. 16, figs 89.

Pasythea eburnea – Busk 1884: 5, pl. 34, fig. 1a-f. — Canu & Bassler 1928: 151, pl. 8, figs 11-12.

OCCURRENCE. — Early Miocene: Indonesia (Di Martino & Taylor 2014). Middle Miocene: Hungary (Moissette et al. 2006). Late Miocene: Dominican Republic (Cheetham et al. 1999), Algeria (Moissette 1988), Calabria. Pliocene: Sicily (Rosso 2002). Pleistocene: Calabria, Sicily (Rosso & Di Geronimo 1998; Rosso 2005), Rhodes (Moissette & Spjeldnaes 1995), Karpathos (Moissette et al. 2017). Holocene: southern Italy (Di Geronimo et al. 2001). Recent: western and eastern Atlantic (Brazil, Caribbean, Azores, Madeira, Bay of Biscay, Gulf of Cadiz), Indian Ocean (Indonesia), Pacific (Hawaii, New Zealand). This is a deep-water species found in the Atlantic at depths between 60 m and 3300 m (Harmer 1957; Harmelin 1977).

DESCRIPTION

Cellariiform colony. Internodes made of one to four pairs of zooids. In each pair, the zooids are separated by a thin groove, placed back to back, slightly twisted from one another, and oriented at about 90 degrees of the previous/ following pair. Zooids elongate, displaying a smooth frontal surface with scarce inconspicuous pores. A few zooids bear in their central part a small oval scar (separated by the thin groove dividing two zooids) corresponding to the start of a lateral branch. Apertures almost circular with two very small indentations on the proximal corners. Neither avicularia nor ovicells.

REMARKS

Smitt (1873) describes an encrusting base (Smitt 1873: pl. 7, fig. 152) from which the erect, typical form arises. Another creeping colony (Smitt 1873: pl. 9, fig. 178) is erroneously attributed by the same author to G. eburnea . The confusion was evidenced by Canu & Bassler (1928).