Tennysonia Busk, 1867

Taylor, Paul D., Waeschenbach, Andrea & Florence, Wayne K., 2011, Phylogenetic position and systematics of the bryozoan Tennysonia: further evidence for convergence and plasticity in skeletal morphology among cyclostome bryozoans, Zootaxa 3010, pp. 58-68 : 60

Tennysonia Busk, 1867

Type species. Tennysonia stellata Busk, 1867 .

Description. As for the type species (see below).

Remarks. Busk (1867) noted that the genus had been named after the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson FRS, at the express desire of the English writer and naturalist Margaret Gatty. Apart from the type species, T. stellata Busk, 1867 , only one other species of the genus has been introduced, Tennysonia subcylindrica Ortmann, 1900 . Ortmann (1900: 370) did not figure his new species but described it as closely resembling T. stellata but having more slen- der, subcylindrical branches and slightly prominent ‘orifices of the cells’ (i.e. peristomes). It is unclear whether Ortmann’s species, a?Miocene fossil from Santa Cruz in southern Patagonia, really belongs to Tennysonia .