Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann, 1963

Seegets-Villiers, Doris E., 2016, Morphological variation of stratigraphically important species in the genus Pilosisporites Delcourt & Sprumont, 1955 in the Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74, pp. 81-91 : 88

Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann, 1963

Figures 5A–D, F

Synonymy: 1963 Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann , pp. 38–39, pl. V, figs 1–3; p. 33 fig 4E

1969 Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann ; Dettmann and Playford, pl.11 fig. 1

1980 Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann ; Burger, p. 52, pl. 6, fig. 4

2012 Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann ; Wagstaff et al., p. 69, pl. 2 fig. 2

non 2014 Pilosisporites grandis Dettmann ; Takeshi and Vijaya, fig. 5E

Size: Equatorial diameter 85 (92) 100 μm. (4 specimens).

Remarks: As discussed in Wagstaff et al. (2012) the grains encountered in the Gippsland Basin are smaller than those originally described by Dettmann (1963) from the Great Artesian and Otway Basins. Dettmann (1963) gave the equatorial diameter of the species as 100 (117) 142 μm. The specimen illustrated by Burger (1980) from the Surat Basin ( Burger, 1980, plate 6, fig. 4) is also smaller (appearing to be approximately 90 μm) than the size range given by Dettmann (1963). We accept the statement of Burger (1980) in the plate (pl. 6, fig. 4) description that the species is primarily identified by its “dense and regular distribution of spines on the exine”.

Distribution (this study): Coptospora paradoxa Zone , specifically Pilosisporites grandis to Cicatricosisporites cuneiformis subzones.