Wurmiella, Murphy, Velenzuela-Rios, and Carls, 2004

Waid, Christopher B. T. & Cramer, Bradley D., 2017, Telychian (Llandovery, Silurian) conodonts from the LaPorte City Formation of eastern Iowa, USA (East-Central Iowa Basin) and their implications for global Telychian conodont biostratigraphic correlation, Palaeontologia Electronica 42 (6), pp. 1-37 : 28-29

Genus WURMIELLA Murphy, Velenzuela-Ríos, and Carls, 2004

Type species. Ozarkodina excavata tuma Murphy and Matti, 1983 .

2004 Wurmiella tuma Murphy and Matti ; Murphy, Velenzuela-Ríos, and Carls, p. 11.

Diagnosis. Apparatus consists of one unpaired and five paired elements (S 0, S 1/2, S 3/4, M, P 1, and P 2). P 1 elements blade-like, with denticles fairly uniform in size. P 1 elements have a small basal cavity that slightly flares outwards into small lobes lacking ornamentation. P 2 elements angulate to slightly angulate with a cusp much larger than denticles on anterior and posterior processes. The posterior process on both the P 1 and P 2 elements can be slightly deflected laterally. See Murphy et al. (2004) for thorough discussion of the distinguishing characteristics of Wurmiella .

Remarks. During the transition from form-taxonomy to multielement taxonomy, most of the species in genus Spathognathodus were transferred to Ozarkodina , regardless of distinct variations in the morphology of P elements (see Valenzuela-Ríos and Murphy, 1997). This allowed for a generic concept that included very diverse morphologies, and likely included numerous species not closely related. Murphy et al. (2004) restrict Ozarkodina to taxa similar to Ozarkodina typica Branson and Mehl, 1933 . The genus Wurmiella was erected by Murphy et al. (2004) to include spathognathodid taxa that have P 1 elements with small, unornamented basal platforms similar to O. typica , but which have relatively evenly-sized denticles, and lack a sail-like fan of large denticles at the anterior end of the element. According to Murphy et al. (2004), P 2 and M element morphologies of Wurmiella are fairly stable throughout the range of the genus, and are distinct enough from the P 2 and M morphologies of Ozarkodina to be considered the most useful for distinguishing species of the two genera.