Rhombopora lepidodendroides Meek, 1872

Ernst, Andrej & Minwegen, Elke, 2006, Late Carboniferous bryozoans from La Hermida, Spain, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51 (3), pp. 569-588 : 579

Rhombopora lepidodendroides Meek, 1872

Fig. 5J–M; Table 8.

Material.—SMF 1728, 1734, 1767, 1782–1784. Description.—Ramose branched colonies, 0.9–1.4 mm in diameter. Autozooecial apertures oval, arranged in irregular diagonal rows, spaced 3–4 in 2 mm, and 6 diagonally in the same distance. Paurostyles 0.01–0.03 mm in diameter, arranged usually in a single, sometimes a double row between autozooecia. Large single megacanthostyles positioned in interspaces between apertures in angles of the hexagons of smaller paurostyles, having pale sheaths and dark cores, 0.05– 0.078 mm in diameter.

Discussion.— Rhombopora lepidodendroides Meek, 1872 is similar R. corticata Moore, 1929 , differing in its smaller diameter autozooecia and smaller colonies.

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—The investigated material comes from the Picos de Europa Formation (Moscovian, Upper Carboniferous) of La Hermida, Northern Spain. This species apparently had a wide distribution (see Newton 1971 for synonymy list, and also Sakagami 1995). It has also been identified in the San Emiliano Formation, Upper Carboniferous, (Westphalian B/C) of Valverdín, Cantabrian Mountains ( Ernst et al. 2005).