Canoptidae Pessagno

Cifer, Tim, Goričan, Špela, Gawlick, Hans-Jürgen & Auer, Matthias, 2020, Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic radiolarians from Mount Rettenstein in the Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 65 (1), pp. 167-207 : 192

Family Canoptidae Pessagno in Pessagno et al., 1979 Genus Canoptum Pessagno in Pessagno et al., 1979

Type species: Canoptum poissoni Pessagno in Pessagno et al., 1979; Turkey, Lower Jurassic .

Remarks. —We follow O’Dogherty et al. (2009), who synonymized Relanus Pessagno and Whalen, 1982 with Canoptum Pessagno in Pessagno et al., 1979. Relanus was originally distinguished from Canoptum by having a horn and a less extensive veneer of microgranular silica ( Pessagno and Whalen 1982). The horn is always very small or even lacking, and the degree of coverage with microgranular silica is not an appropriate character to distinguish different genera in fossil material. Representatives of the genus Canoptum are very rare in our samples.