Toulapora, Nakrem & Błażejowski & Gaździcki, 2009

Nakrem, Hans Arne, Błażejowski, Błażej & Gaździcki, Andrzej, 2009, Lower Permian bryozoans from southern and central Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54 (4), pp. 677-698 : 682

Genus Toulapora nov.

Etymology: The genus name is erected in honour of the Austrian palaeontologist Franz Toula (1845–1920), who conducted the first thorough investigation and description of fossil Bryozoa from Svalbard. Through the years 1873–1875 he published three papers on “Permo− Carbon−Fossilien” from southern and western Spitsbergen, and he described many new species.

Type species: Toulapora svalbardense ( Nakrem, 1994a) from the Asselian–early Sakmarian, middle−upper part of the Tyrrellfjellet Member, Rejmyrefjellet, Spitsbergen.

Diagnosis.—Encrusting unilamellar zoaria. Zooecial walls evenly thickened, not beaded, at places crenulated. Autozooecial apertures oval, rounded, indented by a row of small acanthostyles. Diaphragms thin, usually absent, or extremely rare. Exilazooecia, without diaphragms, commonly distributed around each autozooecium. Acanthostyles of two sizes; sparcely distributed large ones, and a row of regularly distributed small ones inflecting each zooecial aperture; both types with a clear central calcitic rod. Zooecial walls laminated.

Comparison.— Toulapora is superficially similar to Hinaclema Sakagami and Sugimura, 1987 first described from the Early Carboniferous (Viséan) of Japan, subsequently reported from the Viséan of Uzbekistan ( Schastlivtseva 1991) and the Tournaisian of Mongolia ( Gorjunova 1996). Diagnostic characters of Hinaclema include lamellar or multilamellar encrusting zoarium with hollow axial area, thin endozone and absence of diaphragms in auto− and exilazooecial tubes, (large) acanthostyles of one size present ( Sakagami and Sugimura 1987). Sakagami and Sugimura (1987) also mention “Other very small ‘acanthoecia’ (micropore?) … nearly not observable” in the type species Hinaclema hinaensis Sakagami and Sugimura, 1987 , but these are not visible in their illustrations, and if present are clearly different from the row of small acanthostyles bordering each aperture in Toulapora .

Remarks.— Toulapora is tentatively placed in family Crustoporidae Dunaeva and Morozova, 1967 , as suggested for Hinaclema by Schastlivtseva (1991), but contrary to the original placement of Hinaclema in family Heterotrypidae Ulrich, 1890 by Sakagami and Sugimura (1987). Toulapora deviates from the diagnosis of Crustoporidae in having both large and small acanthostyles and in the scarcity of zooecial diaphragms.

It can be added that Gorjunova (1996) in a revision of Hinaclema placed that genus within the order Cystoporida , suborder Ceramoporina . In the same publication she also pointed out that the Svalbard material published as Hinaclema svalbardensis Nakrem, 1994a should not be placed within genus Hinaclema .

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Lower Permian of central Spitsbergen ( Svalbard): Tyrrellfjellet Member (Wordiekammen Formation) of Sakmarian age, and upper part of the Gipshuken Formation of late Artinskian age.