Haplaraea
Milaschewitsch, 1876, p. 228
Type Species
Haplaraea elegans Milaschewitsch, 1876, p. 229 pl. 51 fig. 2; Monotypy
Type Specimen: Syntype; SMNS 21874; Verified; Dry Preserved
Type Locality: Nattheimer Schichten (Upper Jurassic, Germany)
The type-specimen is a silicified fossil. A complementary specimen 67656 from Gerstetten was sawn
Classification
Description
Solitary corallum with subcylindrical corallites commonly exsert. Epitheca nearly absent, only some thin and scarce rhythmic rings. Costae subequal and coarsely and regularly dentate with round robust teeth. Radial elements are anastomosed costosepta perforate in the septal part to compact in the costal part, slightly bicuneiform straight to curved. Distal edge with regular teeth, inner edge with detached trabecules. Lateral faces with conical granules that can evolve into synapticulae. No palis. Trabecules arranged in fan system. Microstructure unknown. Hexameral symmetry not deciphered, bilateral symmetry potentially marked with curvature of septa, elongation of the corallite and of axial zone. Endotheca of vesicular dissepiments sloping down outward and inward, Columella spongious to papillose with cylindrical or slightly compressed papillae. Regularly synapticulate. No wall.
Remarks
Four Jurassic and ten Cretaceous nominal species. Haplaraea was put in the synonymy of Diplaraea by Geyer (1954). This is quite understandable. In the situation of these two type-species coming from the same Upper Kimmeridgian localities, the colonial character is the only difference and as we know in several other families of corals we can consider several morphogenera within a single specific biological unit (Lathuilière 1976). Then the nomenclatural solution chosen here is to keep Haplaraea not as a phyletic genus, but as a morphogenus.
Distribution
- Western Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Caribbean; Middle Jurassic - Late Cretaceous
This page has been in preparation since 18-Aug-2009 17:54
This version was contributed by Bernard Lathuilière on 12-Jan-2013 09:14.
Page authors are: Bernard Lathuilière Ewa Roniewicz. Please contact the editor if you would like to contribute to the diagnosis of this taxon.
The editor is: Bernard Lathuilière
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