Circophyllia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848

Baron-Szabo, Rosemarie C., 2008, Dendrophylliina, Caryophylliina, Fungiina, Microsolenina, and Stylinina, Zootaxa 1952, pp. 1-244 : 206

Genus Circophyllia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848

(= Ghirobocyathus Barta-Calmus, 1969 , Type species. Ghirobocyathus lagaensis Barta-Calmus, 1969 , Paleocene of Ivory Coast).

Type species. Anthophyllum truncatum Goldfuss, 1826 , Eocene of France .

Diagnosis. Solitary, turbinate to trochoid, or bowl-shaped to subpatellate; fixed or free; costosepta compact to fenestrate, covered with numerous rounded and pointed granules; columella spongy-papillose; endothecal dissepiments vesicular, abundant throughout the whole corallum, forming concentric rings parallel to corallite wall; wall septothecal to parathecal; epithecal wall present or absent.

Remarks. Barta-Calmus (1969) stated that her newly created genus Ghirobocyathus from the Paleocene of Ivory Coast was characterized by a bowl-shaped corallum that has compact septa, the absence of pali, presence of a papillose columella, numerous endothecal (vesicular) dissepiments that occur throughout the corallum and form concentric rings parallel to the wall, and no epithecal but rather a parathecal wall. In addition, she included specimens that are also turbinate (see fig. 14 on Pl. 1 in Barta-Calmus, 1969, showing topotype). Moreover, because the holotype of Ghirobocyathus (as shown on fig. 15 on Pl. 1 in Barta-Calmus, 1969) seems to clearly show both compact and fenestrate septa, it very closely corresponds to the genus Circophyllia . Therefore, its synonymy with the latter is proposed.