Pollicipes bruennichi, Withers, 1914

Jagt, John W. M., Zonova, Tatiana D. & Jagt-Yazykova, Elena A., 2007, A review of the brachylepadomorph cirripede genus Pycnolepas, including the first record of an Early Cretaceous species from the Russian Far East *, Zootaxa 1545, pp. 33-47 : 40

Pycnolepas bruennichi Withers, 1914

Original description. Withers (1914: 181, pl. 7, figs 5–9; pl. 8, fig. 6, as Pycnolepas brünnichi).

Type. Holotype is NHM I.16625, a right scutum.

Locality and stratigraphy. Fakse, Sjaelland (eastern Denmark); middle Danian ( Tylocidaris bruennichi Zone ; c. 63 Ma).

Remarks. Valves of this species are strongly ridged both transversely and longitudinally; scutum subtriangular, with broad wall-sided apicobasal ridge, occasionally broader than tergo-lateral portion, tergum with apical portion only slightly curved towards scutum and a similar, yet much narrower, near-straight apicobasal ridge. Height of imbricating plates exceeding width. On tergum, longitudinal ridges subdued by prominent growth lines. Thousands of isolated, yet associated, valves are known from the middle Danian of Fakse, and allow the species to be reconstructed; however, upper latera invariably are rare. Postulated to have been attached either to certain scleractinian corals and/or logs ( Donovan & Jakobsen, 2004), substrates now dissolved.

Withers (1914) proposed Pycnolepas bruennichi as a replacement name for Pollicipes elegans Darwin, 1851 (76, pl. 4, fig. 9a–d), non Lesson (1830: 441), and later ( Withers, 1935) showed P. bruennichi to be confined to strata of early Paleocene (Danian) age. Drygant (1966: 116, fig. 8a, b) recorded a single carina from upper Maastrichtian levels at Briukhovichi, Volhynia-Podolia (now western Ukraine) which he assigned to Pycnolepas elegans (Darwin) . This, however, clearly represents a typical carina of the calanticine Scillaelepas darwiniana ( Bosquet, 1854) , as already noted by Alekseev (1979).

Occurrence. Lower and middle Danian of Denmark ( Withers, 1914, 1935; Jakobsen, 2003; Donovan & Jakobsen, 2004; Jakobsen & Feldmann, 2004), southern Sweden (Limhamn area), northeast Belgium and the southeast Netherlands ( Jagt & Collins, 1988; Jagt, 1996) and the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine ( Alekseev, 1979).