Platelinella, Taylor & Villier, 2022

Taylor, Paul D. & Villier, Loïc, 2022, Cretaceous microporid cheilostome bryozoans from the Campanian historical stratotype of southwest France, Geodiversitas 44 (18), pp. 515-525 : 519

Genus Platelinella n. gen.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:676DF442-6C36-45F2-B7F9-DC9324062B8E

TYPE SPECIES. — Platelinella solea n. sp.

DIAGNOSIS. — Microporid with encrusting colonies; autozooids with narrow marginal gymnocyst surrounding concave cryptocyst pierced by 8-10 opesiules distributed in a horseshoe-shaped crescent; orifice semielliptical with a thin opercular shelf; no spines or tubercles; ovicells and avicularia unknown.

ETYMOLOGY. — Named for Jean-Pierre Platel in honour of his seminal contributions to Campanian stratigraphy in SW France.

REMARKS

This new genus can be compared with Metamicropora , introduced by Arakawa (2016) for a Japanese Miocene-Recent species originally attributed to Verminaria , characterised by having opesiules with internal cribrate openings. Cribrate openings have not been observed in Platelinella , although this may possibly reflect preservational limitations. However, Platelinella lacks tubercles located at the distolateral corners of the autozooids, and avicularia have not been seen in the studied colonies all of which are moderately large. The radial elongation of the opesiules in Platelinella is another difference from Metamicropora .