Margarogyra, Roniewicz, 2011

Roniewicz, Ewa, 2011, Early Norian (Triassic) corals from the Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria, and the intra-Norian faunal turnover, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56 (2), pp. 401-428 : 410

Genus Margarogyra nov.

Type species: Margarogyra hirsuta sp. nov., type and only species; see below.

Diagnosis.—Thamnasterioid coral with circumoral budding. Septa built of long, well delimited fibre portions that emerge on septal faces as densely packed, sharply−ended granules. The highest order septa are vertically discontinuous. Dissepiments vesicular, abundant.

Comparisons.—In its septal microstructure based on thin trabecular elements observable at the internal border of the S4 septa, and in the densely packed thin stereomal fascicles that form the majority of the septal blades, the genus thus resembles the solitary Noriphyllia (compare Roniewicz and Stanley 2009).

In thamnasterioid relationships of corallites and in corallite dimensions the new genus is similar to the genus Campesteria Caruthers and Stanley, 2008 . However, the distal borders of the S1 septa of Campesteria prolixia bear thick granulations that are especially clearly seen in the specimen UMIP 26953 in Carruthers and Stanley (2008: fig. 6: 1, at lower right corner). This micromorphological feature, indicating a thick−trabecular and not a thin−trabecular, coryphylliid microstructure, has not been observed in Margarogyra hirsuta nor in any coryphylliid coral.