Ufimia Stuckenberg, 1895

El-Desouky, Heba, Herbig, Hans-Georg & Kora, Mahmoud, 2023, Kasimovian (late Pennsylvanian) cornute rugose corals from Egypt: taxonomy, facies and palaeogeography of a cool-water fauna from northern Gondwana, Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (32) 142 (1), pp. 1-39 : 24-25

Genus Ufimia Stuckenberg, 1895 .

Type-species: Ufimia carbonaria Stuckenberg, 1895 .

Diagnosis: Small solitary corals with zaphrentoid early stages. Alar and counter lateral septa dominating in late stages becoming longer, taller, thicker, and more rhopaloid. Rhopaloid axial ends of major septa commonly conjunct in axial region in middle stages of development, withdrawing and becoming free axially in late stages. Longest and strongest metasepta are commonly midquadrant. Cardinal and counter protosepta shorten progressively. Minor septa rudimentary to short. Tabular floors tall and axially depressed; dissepiments missing. Septa trabecular, uniseriate (after Hill, 1981 and Fedorowski, 2004).

Remarks: Schindewolf (1942) discussed the genus and gave earlier synonymies. Like following authors (e.g., de Groot, 1963; Kullmann, 1965, 1968), he considered Ufimia as subgenus of Plerophyllum Hinde, 1890 , only differing by the shortened cardinal septum in adult stages. Fedorowski (1973), like in the original designation of Stuckenberg (1895), as well as Hill (1956, 1981) and later authors again considered Ufimia as valid on the genus level. Rhopalolasma Hudson, 1936 like the most probably misspelled Rhopalelasma Lang et al., 1940, as well as? Plerophyllum (Meniscophylloides) Kullmann, 1966 , are younger synonyms of Ufimia (e.g., Hill, 1981; Fedorowski and Bamber, 2001). The strong similarity of the genus with Tachylasma Grabau, 1922 was stressed by Rodríguez (1984b). In the adult stage, the genera are virtually not distinguishable, but in juvenile stages, the septa in Tachylasma are not conjunct axially. Moreover, though in cases difficult to see, Ufimia has zaphrentoid septal development in earlier ontogenetic stages, opposed to the pentaphyllid development in Tachylasma (see discussion in Fedorowski and Bamber, 2001).

The diagnosis of the Ufimia was slightly emended by inclusion of septal microstructure ( Fedorowski, 2004).

Geographic and stratigraphic range: Ufimia is a complex, wide-spread genus—probably a group of intimately related, mostly homeomorphic genera, as indicated by stratigraphic gaps between occurrences. It is recorded from Lower Devonian (Upper Emsian) to Upper Permian strata throughout the Palaeotethys, adjoining epicontinental seas, and the Ural and Franklinian seaways (fide Hill, 1981, and Fedorowski and Bamber, 2001). It is absent from Canada south of the Arctic realm and the conterminous USA. ( Wang et al., 2017, 2022). A detailed review is out of scope from the present paper, but we present the distribution patterns from the Pennsylvanian to the Permian. Flügel (1991) described a rich fauna consisting of several species known from lower Carboniferous and the new species U. biforma Flügel, 1991 from Namurian (Serpukhovian–Bashkirian) strata of central-eastern Iran. From the westernmost Palaeotethys Ufimia was recorded from Asturian strata (= Westphalian D, Kasimovian) of the Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain (de Groot, 1963; Fedorowski, 2004; Rodríguez, 1984b; Rodríguez and Kullmann, 1990; Rodríguez et al., 2022). The genus is known from the Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian of the Donets Basin ( Fomichev, 1953). It is an important faunal element of the Upper Artinskian strata from the central to subpolar Urals; also the type species, Ufimia carbonaria Stuckenberg, 1895 is from the Late Artinskian of the Urals ( Kossovaya et al., 2001; Kossovaya, 2007; see also Ilina, 1984 who redescribed the type species). In the Kungurian to Capitanian interval, Ufimia was a common faunal element in South China and Indochina, but persisted into the latest Permian; in Inner Mongolia and North China block as well as in the peri-Gondwana terranes the genus also was widespread from the Asselian to Lopingian, appearing also in the Guadalupian of Japan (fide Wang et al., 2017); Fedorowski and Bamber (2001) described Ufimia from the Wordian (Middle Guadalupian) of the Sverdrup Basin (Canadian Arctic) and the Upper Permian of eastern Greenland, where it was first described by Flügel (1973: “ Cryptophyllum ( Tachylasma ?) sp.?”). It is also known from the Kungurian (probably Guadalupian according to Wang et al., 2017) in Spitsbergen ( Ezaki, 1997).