Tibetiporella, Ernst, 2016

Ernst, Andrej, 2016, Bryozoan fauna from the Permian (Artinskian-Kungurian) Zhongba Formation of southwestern Tibet, Palaeontologia Electronica (1946) 51 (9), pp. 1-59 : 48-50

Genus TIBETIPORELLA n. gen.

zoobank.org/ F1631541-0817-4F68-A475-1CA0028A0AB3

Type species. Tibetiporella ornata n. gen. n. sp. Zhongba Formation, Permian ( upper Cisuralian– Guadalupian ); Zhongba area of southwestern Tibet .

Etymology. The genus is named after its occurrence in Tibet plus suffix –porella (feminine), meaning pored organism.

Diagnosis. Reticulate colonies consisting of broad linear branches joined by short and wide dissepiments; dissepiments narrow, perpendicular to branches, regularly spaced at large distance; fenestrules elongate oval, sub-rectangular, or irregular in shape; keels and superstructure absent; autozooecia arranged in 3–7 rows on branches; autozooecial apertures circular; autozooecial chambers long, narrow, tubular, with long vestibules, proximally recumbent on budding plate, rhomboidal in mid tangential section, long axis parallel with branch axis; hemisepta and diaphragms absent; granular skeleton present in basal plate and axial wall but locally absent in transverse and lateral autozooecial walls; extrazooecial skeleton thick, laminated, traversed by abundant, moderate-size microstyles; apparent reproductive heteromorphs in form of isolated zooecia with enlarged chambers in the proximal part of the vestibule, occurring on obverse colony surface; chambers rounded, oval to semicircular in tangential section; nodes and styles on the obverse colony surface present; reverse side smooth.

Remarks. Tibetiporella n. gen. differs from Mackinneyella Morozova and Lisitsyn, 1996 by having long autozooecia with long vestibules and heteromorphs in the form of enlarged chambers in the proximal part of vestibule.

Occurrence. Zhongba Formation, Permian (upper Cisuralian –Guadalupian); Zhongba area of southwestern Tibet .