Truncatoflabellum gambierense (Duncan, 1864) Duncan, 1864

Cairns, Stephen D., 2016, A key to the genera and species of the transversely-dividing Flabellidae (Anthozoa, Scleractinia, Flabellidae), with a guide to the literature, and the description of two new species, ZooKeys 562, pp. 1-48 : 11-12

Taxon classification Animalia Scleractinia Flabellidae

Truncatoflabellum gambierense (Duncan, 1864) comb. n. Fig. 4C

Flabellum gambierense Duncan, 1864: 163, pl. 5, fig. 3a-c; 1870: 299-300, 308, 310, 312, pl. 19, figs 9-10.- Tenison-Woods 1878b: 312.- Felix 1927: 409.-Fitzgerald and Schmidt: 3 (color figure).

New records.

Spined coralla: USGS 10809, Balcombe’s Bay, Mornington, Victoria (Balcombian, Middle Miocene), 2 specimens, USNM 1295473. Non-spined coralla: Muddy Creek, Victoria (Balcombian, Middle Miocene), 9 specimens, USNM 67958, 353989, and M353589; Balcombe’s Bay, Mornington, Victoria (Balcombian, Middle Miocene), 6 specimens, USNM M353581 and M353580.

Distribution.

Middle Miocene: Mount Gambier, S. Australia; Cape Otway, Balcombe’s Bay, Mornington, and Beaumaris, Victoria.

Remarks.

In the original description, Duncan (1864) described the species as not having thecal edge spines, but in 1870 said that the coral has "often small spines nearer the calice than the pedicel." Indeed, some specimens of this distinctively-shaped species have spines (traditional Truncatoflabellum ) and others do not (see New Records). Ordinarily, if a species of Truncatoflabellum bears thecal edge spines then all specimens of that species will bear spines. Thus, this variation in character is unusual and may be indicative of the early evolution in the genus when spination and transverse division were still experimental, as Truncatoflabellum gambierense is one of those species that shows a crescentric transverse weakness in its corallum but the anthocyathus usually remains attached to the anthocaulus, possibly the ancestral condition for the species.