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Archaeosmilia

Melnikova, 1975: 110

Type Species

Archaeosmilia beata Melnikova, 1975: 110, fig. 1: 1a, 1б, 1в; Original Designation Melnikova, 1975: 110

Type Specimen: Holotype; IGD 3267; Verified; Thin Section

Type Locality: Say Sedek creek, Alichur Valley, SE Pamirs. Hettangian, Early Jurassic.

Classification

Diagnosis

Solitary, conical; calice deep; epitheca thick. Septa wedge like, thick, non-exsert, smooth, differentiated into four size orders; symmetry six-folded. The S1 septa are the thickest and long, the S2 septa thinner and shorter, the S3 septa about half of the length of the longest septa, the S4 septa short and irregularly distributed. Endotheca well developed, made of tabuloid dissepiments with addition of large vesiculae. Microstructure preserved in traces, as a straight mid-septal line.

Comparisons

In the corallite structure, the genus is similar to phaceloid Archaeosmiliopsis Melnikova, 1975. In its shape and wedge like septa, the genus Archaeosmiliopsis is similar to Mesophyllum Hahn, 1911 from the middle part of the Lower Jurassic, Kramsach Limestone, in the Northern Calcareous Alps (Hahn 1911), and to solitary corals from the Domerian and Carixian of the Bakonyi Mountains, Hungary (Dulai 1995) which were described under diverse generic names (Trochocyathus, Ceratocoenia, Montlivaltia? and Caryophyllia?). Genus Archaeosmilia differs from all of them in having endotheca, while the enumerated corals do not show any traces of the endothecal structure.

Remarks

Two species described by Melnikova 1975 are known from the Hettangian-Sinemurian? of Central Asia, from Tadjikistan and Afghanistan, and other two to four species from the Early Jurassic of Morocco described from the Sinemurian and Domerian by Beauvais 1986.

Distribution

  • Central Asia; Early Jurassic
Early Jurassic in the SE Pamirs, Tadjikistan and in the North Africa, Morocco.

This page has been in preparation since 07-May-2009 07:26

This version was contributed by Ewa Roniewicz on 20-Nov-2010 17:22.

Page authors are: 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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