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Clausimultelea d'Orbigny, 1853


D'Orbigny's illustrations of Clausimultelea tuberculata. Photograph of the holotype specimen of Clausimultelea tuberculata.
Scanning electron micrograph of part of the holotype of Clausimultelea tuberculata. Scanning electron micograph of the centre of a subcolony of Clausimultelea tuberculata.
Scanning electron micrograph of zooids from the holotype of Clausimultelea tuberculata. Scanning electron micrograph of autozooids, kenozooids and eleozooids of Clausimultelea tuberculata. Scanning electron micrograph of abraded gonozooid of Clausimultelea tuberculata.


Type species

Clausimultelea tuberculata d'Orbigny, 1853, p. 655
Cretaceous, Senonian, Triquerville, Seine Maritime, France

Holotype: MNHN R61776, d'Orbigny Collection (ex 8203), figured by d'Orbigny 1853, pl. 784, figs 12-15



Diagnostic features

  • colony encrusting, multilamellar, new layers originating through eruptive budding from older zooids and growing radially as subcolonies

  • autozooids fixed-walled with slender pseudoporous frontal walls delineated by salient boundary walls; apertures tall with a straight proximal edge forming the hinge-line for an operculum preserved in-situ in many zooids

  • eleozooids fixed-walled, common, slightly longer and narrower than autozooids; aperture elongate, pointed distally, in-situ mandibles not observed

  • kenozooids fixed-walled, numerous, intercalated between the autozooids and sometimes completely surrounding them, polygonal in outline and generally smaller than the autozooids

  • gonozooid damaged in the holotype colony, subcircular in outline, presumably fixed-walled (as in all known eleids)

Classification

Order Cyclostomata
Suborder Tubuliporina
Family Eleidae



Remarks

The sole specimen in the d'Orbigny Collection provides a good match with his figures and is regarded as the holotype of the species. Taylor (1994, p. 99) placed Clausimultelea in synonymy with Reptomultelea because the defining feature of Clausimultelea - the presence of numerous kenozooids - was not considered of sufficient importance to warrant recognition of a separate genus.



References

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

Taylor, P.D. 1994. Systematics of the melicerititid cyclostome bryozoans; introduction and the genera Elea, Semielea and Reptomultelea. Bulletin of The Natural History Museum, London, Geology Series 50: 1-103.