Rhombocladia punctata Dunaeva, 1961

Ernst, Andrej & Minwegen, Elke, 2006, Late Carboniferous bryozoans from La Hermida, Spain, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51 (3), pp. 569-588 : 584-585

Rhombocladia punctata Dunaeva, 1961

Fig. 7D–H; Table 13.

1961 Rhombocladia punctata sp. nov.; Dunaeva 1961: 40–41, pl. 5: 5–7, text−figs. 4, 5.

Material.— SMF 1755, 1760, 1793, 1794–1796 (and 17 additional fragments).

Description.—Dichotomously branching colonies. Branches 1.4–1.9 mm wide and 0.7–1.1 mm thick in their middle parts, lens−shaped in cross−section. Oval apertures arranged diagonally in 7 to 8 rows, 4.5 spaced in 2 mm of the branch length longitudinally and 7–8 diagonally. Autozooecial chambers long, bending gently to the colony surface, becoming rhombic in deeper tangential section, appearing rhombic to hexagonal in cross−section. Long superior hemisepta, curved proximally, positioned in distal parts of autozooecia; inferior hemisepta absent. Abundant microacanthostyles arranged irregularly between apertures, 0.02 mm in diameter. Walls 0.035 –0.040 mm thick in the endozone, 0.13–0.16 mm thick in the exozone. Heterozooecia absent.

Disscusion.—This species is similar to Rhombocladia multispinosa McKinney, 1972 from the Bangor Limestone (Chesterian) of North America. The latter species differs in having large single macroacanthostyles between the apertures.

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Kasimovian Stage, Upper Carboniferous; Donetsk Basin, Ukraine. Picos de Europa Formation, Moscovian, Upper Carboniferous; La Hermida, Spain.