Phillipsastrea d’Orbigny, 1849

Ma, Xue-Ping, Sun, Yuan-Lin, Hao, Wei-Cheng & Liao, Wei-Hua, 2002, Rugose corals and brachiopods across the Frasnian- Famennian boundary in central Hunan, South China, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 47 (2), pp. 373-396 : 380

Genus Phillipsastrea d’Orbigny, 1849 Phillipsastrea nevadensis Stumm, 1940

Fig. 7D, E .

Phillipsastrea nevadensis n. sp.; Stumm 1940: 66, pl. 7: 13, pl. 8: 15a, b.

Material.—Ten different−sized specimens.

Remarks.—Massive, wall between individuals lost, with septa of neighboring individuals being in contact. There are 10–12 major septa which generally extend to the center. Both major and minor septa are dilated at the inner margin of the dissepimentarium; dilation of the majors slightly more inwardly extended. In the tabularium, the majors are very delicate; the tabularium is 2 to 2.5 mm wide; distance between neighboring tabularia is about 3 mm. There are commonly one row of horse−shoe dissepiments forming the tabularium wall and some fan−like dissepiments outwardly. The tabulae are divided into peripheral series and axial series, with the latter being 10 or more per 5 mm.

The Hunan specimens basically resemble P. nevadensis in the strong dilation of septa at the inner margin of the dissepimentarium, delicate septa in the tabularium reaching the center, and smaller number of septa. However, the tabularium is narrower in the Hunan specimens (2 to 2.5 mm vs. 3 mm in North American specimens) and neighboring tabularia in our specimens are much closer to each other (about 3 mm from margin to margin) than those of the North American specimens (about 5 mm) as illustrated by Stumm (1940) and McLean (1994).

Occurrence.—Central Hunan in the Chongshanpu section; latest Frasnian.

Figures

Fig. 7. Latest Frasnian (upper part of the Pa. linguiformis Zone) rugose corals from central Hunan. A, B. Disphyllum cf. cylindricum Sun, 1955, longitudinal and transverse sections, PUM 93593, sample L5/0.3−0.4; A × 3.8, B × 3.2. C, I. Frechastraea? hsikuangshanensis Ma, 1994., sample L5/0.85, longitudinal (× 3.6) and transverse (× 2.65) sections of the holotype specimen, PUM 93602. D, E. Phillipsastrea nevadensis Stumm, 1940, transverse and longitudinal sections of specimen PUM 93606, bed T3 of the Chongshanpu Section (see Ma 1998 for stratigraphy); × 5.5. F, G. Phillipsastrea sp., longitudinal and transverse sections, PUM 93606, bed T3; × 5.5. H. Disphyllum dupliforme Kong, 1978, transverse section, PUM 93592, from the top of the Frasnian of Taotang, about 2 km north of the Xikuangshan section (see Fig. 8L for longitudinal section); × 2.3.