Discoporella reussiana ( Manzoni, 1869 )

Moissette, Pierre, Antonarakou, Assimina, Kontakiotis, George, Cornée, Jean-Jacques & Karakitsios, Vasileios, 2021, Bryozoan faunas at the Tortonian-Messinian transition. A palaeoenvironmental case study from Crete Island, eastern Mediterranean, Geodiversitas 43 (26), pp. 1365-1400 : 1382

Discoporella reussiana ( Manzoni, 1869) ( Fig. 9C, D )

Cupularia reussiana Manzoni, 1869: 27 , pl. 2, fig. 19.

Cupuladria reussiana – Annoscia 1963: 226, pl. 9, fig. 2; pl. 10, fig. 2; pl. 13, fig. 1; pl. 14, fig. 1a-b. — Prenant & Bobin 1966: 316, fig. 104. — Reguant 1969: 38, figs 1-3.

Reussirella reussiana –Baluk & Radwansky 1984: 27, pl. 11, figs 1-2.

Discoporella reussiana – Cook 1965: 219, text-fig.2f; pl. 3, fig. 1. — Poluzzi 1975: 52, pl. 18, figs 1a-m, 2, 3. — Pouyet & Moissette 1992: 44, pl. 5, fig. 4-6. — Moissette et al. 1993: 96, figs 5c-d. — Haddadi-Hamdane 1996: 66, pl. 5, figs 2, 3, 8.

OCCURRENCE. — Middle Miocene: Austria (Baluk & Radwansky 1984). Late Miocene: Italy, Crete ( Moissette et al. 1993). Pliocene: Algeria (Haddadi-Hamdane 1996), Sicily ( Pouyet & Moissette 1992). Pleistocene: Spain ( Reguant 1969), Sicily, Umbria, central Italy ( Bizzarri et al. 2015). Recent: the present-day occurrence of this species is doubtful ( Cook 1965; Prenant & Bobin 1966). The nearest living species, R. doma , lives in tropical to subtropical waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, on sandy to muddy bottoms at depths of 10 to 370 m ( Cook 1965; Prenant & Bobin 1966).

DESCRIPTION Lunulitiform colony. Frontal surface with alternating radial series of rhomboidal zooids, each bearing a distal vibraculum. The six cryptocystal denticles do not fuse in the middle of the opesia. The apical zone of the colony shows zooids covered

by a calcified lamina. Basal surface depressed in the centre, displaying marked radial grooves and strong tubercles.

REMARKS D. reussiana resembles very much Reussirella doma (d’Orbigny, 1851) to which it has been confused ( Prenant & Bobin 1966). According to Cook (1965), the unfused cryptocystal denticles are especially characteristic of the western African Reussirella owenii (Gray, 1828).

Figures

FIG. 9. — A, B, Cupuladria cf. canariensis (Busk, 1859); A, frontal view of a whole colony, KER39: AMPG(IV) 3078a; B, dorsal view of a whole colony, KER39: AMPG(IV) 3078b; C, D, Discoporella reussiana (Manzoni,1869); C, frontal view of a whole colony,KER30:AMPG(IV) 3102; D, dorsal view of a whole colony,KER30: AMPG(IV) 3101; E, Nellia tenella (Lamarck, 1816), detail of an internode showing two zooids in frontal view, KER17: AMPG(IV) 3150a; F-H, Canda rectangulata Udin, 1964; F, dorsal view of an internode fragment, FAN35: AMPG(IV) 3506a; G, frontal view of an internode fragment, FAN35: AMPG(IV) 3506b; H, Detail of the same fragment, FAN35: AMPG(IV) 3506b. Scale bars: A-D, 1 mm; E, H, 100 µm; F-G, 200 µm.