Aphelesia bipartita ( Brocchi, 1814 )

Bitner, Maria Aleksandra & Moissette, Pierre, 2003, Pliocene brachiopods from north-western Africa, Geodiversitas 25 (3), pp. 463-479 : 466

Aphelesia bipartita ( Brocchi, 1814) ( Fig. 2 ; Table 2)

Aphelesia bipartita – Cooper 1959: 41, 42, pl. 7, figs 12-22; pl. 8, figs 13-18; pl. 22, figs 18-25. — Gaetani & Saccà 1985b: 363-365, text-figs 2, 3, pl. 17, figs 1-3; pl. 19, figs 1-3. — Bitner & Martinell 2001: 179, 181, fig. 3A-H.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — 22 complete specimens, one ventral valve, and three dorsal valves from Algeria: LP- MNHN B.38645-B.38648, B.38658, B.38662, B.38663, B.38667, B.38668, B.38670, B.38671, B.38674, B.38681, B.38683; two ventral valves from Morocco: LP-MNHN B.38315 (for distribution in particular sites see Table 1).

REMARKS

Aphelesia bipartita is one of the commonest brachiopods and the only rhynchonellid in the investigated material. This species has been well described and illustrated by previous authors ( Cooper 1959; Gaetani & Saccà 1985a, b; Bitner & Martinell 2001). It is well known from the Pliocene of Italy ( Gaetani & Saccà 1985a, b; Taddei Ruggiero 1996) and Spain ( Brébion et al. 1971; Bitner & Martinell 2001). Davidson (1864) and Pedley (1976) also recorded this species from the Miocene deposits of Malta, and Meznerics (1943) from the Miocene of Hungary.

A. bipartita has a subtriangular outline and a smooth surface with incipient costation on the anterior margin. The shell is strongly dorsibiconvex with broadly uniplicate anterior commissure. It was already reported, under the name Rhynchonella bipartita , from the Pliocene deposits of Algeria, by Welsch (1888) and Ficheur (1896a), but this is the first record of this species from Morocco.

The only other rhynchonellid from the Pliocene of the Algiers region was a new species described from only two specimens by Dautzenberg (1909), Rhynchonella lamothei . This coarsely ribbed species is unlike any other Tertiary rhynchonellid, and as nothing is known about its interior, it is difficult to evaluate that determination (see also Cooper 1959: 66).

Order TEREBRATULIDA Waagen, 1883 Suborder TEREBRATULIDINA Waagen, 1883 Superfamily TEREBRATULOIDEA Gray, 1840 Family TEREBRATULIDAE Gray, 1840 Subfamily TEREBRATULINAE Gray, 1840

Figures

FIG. 2. — Aphelesia bipartita (Brocchi, 1814); A-H, ventral, dorsal, lateral and anterior views of complete specimens, Draria, Algeria (LP-MNHN B.38645); I-L, ventral, dorsal, lateral and anterior views of complete specimen, Mustapha supérieur (Algiers), Algeria (LP- MNHN B.38648); M, interior view of dorsal valve, Bab El Oued, Algeria (LP-MNHN B.38658). Scale bars: 1 cm.