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Cellulipora d'Orbigny, 1849


D'Orbigny's illustrations of Cellulipora ornata.
Photograph of the neotype colony of Cellulipora ornata. Enalrged photograph of the neotype colony of Cellulipora ornata.
Scanning electron micrograph of subcolony of Cellulipora ornata. Scanning electron micrograph of centre of subcolony of Cellulipora ornata. Scanning electron micrograph showing autozooids of Cellulipora ornata.
Scanning electron micrograph of Cellulipora ornata showing a group of autozooids. Scanning electron micrograph of Cellulipora ornata showing autozooids with perforated plates on the frontal walls. Scanning electron micrograph of Cellulipora ornata showing perforated palte on the frontal wall of an autozooid.
Scanning electron micrograph of Cellulipora ornata showing abraded overgrowth. Scanning electron micrograph showing a gonozooid of Cellulipora ornata. Scanning electron micrograph showing boundary between two subcolonies of Cellulipora ornata.


Type species

Cellulipora ornata d'Orbigny, 1849, p. 500
Cretaceous, Cenomanian, Cap de la Hève, Seine-Maritime, France

Type material: MNHN R61665, d'Orbigny Collection (ex 6604); designated as the neotype by Buge & Voigt (1972, p. 126)



Diagnostic features

  • colony encrusting, large and massive, hollow if growing around a perished cylindrical substratum, multilamellar, composed of numerous polygonal subcolonies each growing centrifugally and united at their edges with adjacent subcolonies to form a single layer of the colony; a band of open kenozooids developed at boundary between subcolonies

  • autozooids probably fixed-walled, with short frontal walls containing a peculiar raised perforated plate but otherwise without apparent pseudopores; apertures longitudinally elliptical, large, closely-spaced, sometimes closed by terminal diaphragms

  • kenozooids free-walled, subcircular, thick-walled, present in a band where subcolonies anastomose

  • gonozooid fixed-walled, large, crescent-shaped, the inflated frontal wall surrounding a few autozooidal apertures


Classification

Order Cyclostomata
Suborder Tubuliporina
Family Celluliporidae



Remarks

This is an extremely distinctive bryozoan, characterised by its large colonies with clearly-defined polygonal subcolonies that superficially resemble the corallites of a colonial coral. Indeed, coarsely silicified colonies from the British Albian are routinely mistaken for corals. New subcolonies originate from the centres of existing subcolonies by eruptive budding through intrazooecial fission.

Buge & Voigt (1972) redescribed Cellulipora, attributing to the several other species ranging from Hauterivian to ?Coniacian.



References

Buge, E. & Voigt, E. 1972. Les Cellulipora (Bryozoa, Cyclostomata) du Cénomanien Français et la famille des Celluliporidae. Geobios 5: 121-150.

Orbigny, A. d' 1849. A. dÕOrbigny, Description de quelques genres nouveaux de Mollusques bryozoaires. Revue et Magasin de Zoologie Pure et Appliquée (2) 1, 499-504.

Orbigny, A. d' 1851-1854. Paléontologie Française, Terrains Crétacé, 5, Bryozoaires. Masson, Paris, 1192 pp, pls 600-800.