Uvigerina spinulosa Hadley, 1934

Bergh, Eugene W. & Compton, John S., 2022, Taxonomy of Middle Miocene foraminifera from the northern Namibian continental shelf, Zootaxa 5091 (1), pp. 1-55 : 24

Uvigerina spinulosa Hadley, 1934

Pl. 5, fig. 1

Uvigerina spinulosa Hadley, 1934 , pl. 18, fig. 5; Boersma, 1984, p. 163, pl. 1, figs 1–6; Van Morkhoven et al., 1986, p. 218, pl. 74, figs 1–3; Kender et al., 2018, p. 515, pl. 18, fig. 5.

Description: The test wall is calcareous and perforate. The test is triserial, elongate, rounded in cross-section and covered in longitudinal costae which end in spines at the base of the chambers. Later chambers are inflated with depressed sutures. The aperture is terminal on a neck, with a pronounced lip.

Remarks: The tests of this species in this study measure ~ 0.2 mm in cross section diameter and ~ 0.5 mm in length. This species is less abundant in the samples than U. peregrina .

This species was originally identified as Uvigerina caneriensis d’Orbigny var. spinulosa by Hadley (1934). Coryell and Embich (1937) identified another hispid uvigerinid species as U. spinulosa . The accepted name for Uvigerina caneriensis d’Orbigny var. spinulosa Hadley (1934) has become Uvigerina spinulosa , but there are clear differences in the figures and original descriptions of the two specimens. The entire test of the figured specimen in Coryell and Embich (1937) is covered in fine, short hispid structures, but the figured and described specimen in Hadley (1934) has longitudinal costae covering the test. It may be that the specimen described by Coryell and Embich (1937) might be related to Uvigerina hispida . In fact, Coryell and Embich (1937) describe U. spinulosa as closely resembling U. hispida , but differs only in shape and the neck. These two species bearing the same name should therefore not be synonymised.

Life strategy: The species of the genus Uvigerina are generally shallow-infaunal and most abundant under high organic carbon ( Murray, 2006), adapted to suboxic conditions ( Kaiho, 1994).

Regional occurrence: U. spinulosa Hadley, 1934 is recorded to occur in middle Miocene strata on the continental shelf of northern Namibia, south of the Kunene River mouth (this study) and in the Congo Basin (Kender et al., 2018).