Cunnolites Alloiteau, 1957

Baron-Szabo, Rosemarie C., 2008, Dendrophylliina, Caryophylliina, Fungiina, Microsolenina, and Stylinina, Zootaxa 1952, pp. 1-244 : 168

Genus Cunnolites Alloiteau, 1957

Type species. Cunnolites barrerei Alloiteau, 1957 , Campanian of France .

Diagnosis. Solitary, cunnolitid (cupolate), free, circular or elliptical in outline. Base flat to concave. Calicular pit circular or elongate. Septa perforate (younger septa) to subcompact. Columella absent or feebly developed, trabecular. Synapticulae abundant. Endothecal dissepiments thin, few in number. Epitheca present or absent.

Remarks. During the last century, numerous revisions have been carried out on the genus Cunnolites , with species differentiated mainly based on the ratios of their skeletal dimensions such as corallite diameter/ height of corallum, corallite diameter/size of calicular pit, etc. Recent studies on the ontogeny of Cunnolites , carried out by Baron-Szabo (2003) strongly suggest that the specific characteristics are restricted to the density of septa in peripheral areas of the corallum vs. septal density around calicinal pit, as well as the ratio of minimum/maximum corallite diameter ( Table 5).

Géczy (1954) carried out investigations on juvenile and adult stages in specimens from the Campanian of Hungary which he assigned to “ Cyclotites ”. However, because in his examination, forms of “ Cyclotites ” and specimens which are clearly colonial and most likely belong to the genus Aspidastraea Kühn (e.g, specimens figured on plate II, figs 2 and 14, specimen figured plate III, fig. 27) were mixed, the data were not used in present study.