Novixitus Pessagno, 1977

Dumitrica, Paulian, Dieni, Iginio & Massari, Francesco, 2022, Valanginian Radiolarians Of Ne Sardinia (Italy) In The Frame Of The Weissert Event, Acta Palaeontologica Romaniae 18 (2), pp. 97-159 : 151

Genus Novixitus Pessagno, 1977

Type species. Novixitus mclaughlini Pessagno, 1977 (= junior synonym of Lithostrobus elegans Squinabol 1903 ). Remark s. An interesting discussion deserves Lithostrobus elegans Squinabol (1903, pl. 9, fig. 22) that was erroneously synonymised by O’Dogherty ( 1994) with Xitus vermiculatus (Renz, 1974) . Squinabol’s drawing is very small but rather significant. Looking carefully at he original drawing, this species appears rather big if compared to Phormocyrtis veneta (see Squinabol, 1903, pl. 9, fig. 30), that has the same magnification and that will become type species of the genus Thanarla Pessagno,1977 . At the middle and distal parts of its shell, this “ Lithostrobus ” has also two rows of bigger tubercles separated by circumferential rows of smaller tubercles. And, above all, this species has on the proximal part two rows of very big tubercles, one larger on the lower part and one smaller above it. This proves that it is nothing else than Novixitus mclaughlini Pessagno, 1977 . Another argument for this assignation is the age of the two species. According to Pessagno (1977b), N. mclaughlini is early Cenomanian in age. Lithostrobus elegans is also Cenomanian in age occurring in an assemblage with Thanarla veneta (Squinabol) , Pseudodictyomitra pseudomacrocephala (Squinabol, 1903) and many other coeval species.