8. Spiniferites mirabilis (M.R. Rossignol) Sarjeant

(Fig. 3D, E)

Spheroidal cyst, with laevigate or finely granulated surface. Large number of thick conical processes, with small branches at the top, covering the entire surface. Archeopyle formed by loss of the third precingular plate (Sarjeant, 1974). Diameter (including projections) ca. 58–115 µm (x 95 µm). The cyst generally has irregular folds and/or is fractured due to preservation conditions. Ecological data: marine, cosmopolitan, dinocyst from low to high salinity levels,in estuarine,coastal,and coastal to open oceanic sites, widely occurring in diverse ocean environments, and always in low numbers(Wall etal., 1977). As O. centrocarpum, it is used as an index of ancient shoreline positions on the southern Brazilian coastal plain (Lorscheitter, 1983, Lorscheitter & Romero, 1985; Cordeiro & Lorscheitter, 1994; Neves & Lorscheitter, 1995; Lorscheitter & Dillenburg, 1998; Lorscheitter, 2003; Roth et al., 2021).