COPICYNTRIDAE Kozur & Mostler, 1989

Noble, Paula, Aitchison, Jonathan C., Danelian, Taniel, Dumitrica, Paulian, Maletz, Jörg, Suzuki, Noritoshi, Cuvelier, Jessie, Caridroit, Martial & O’Dogherty, Luis, 2017, Taxonomy of Paleozoic radiolarian genera, Geodiversitas 39 (3), pp. 419-502 : 476

Family COPICYNTRIDAE Kozur & Mostler, 1989

Copicyntrinae Kozur & Mostler, 1989: 215 (nom. transl.)

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS. —Spherical, ellipsoidal, to discoidal shell consisting of six to 11 spongy layers that show a planispiral arrangement in cross section. Layers may not be strongly distinguished. Spines occur in most taxa and vary from massive three-bladed spines to delicate needle-like spines. In some cases spines may be distributed in a polar arrangement (herein).

REMARKS

Nazarov & Ormiston originally placed the genera contained herein within the Entactinaria , however no inner entactinarian spicule has been observed, even after sectioning ( Noble & Jin 2010). Kozur & Mostler (1989) erected the subfamily Copicyntrinae , which they placed in the spumellarian family Oertlispongidae . De Wever et al. (2001) use a narrower definition of the Oertlispongidae that is restricted only to the Mesozoic forms. Herein, we raise the rank of the Copicyntrinae to the family level, and emend the description to include spherical, ovate, and discoidal forms in order to accommodate several concentrically spongy upper Paleozoic genera.