Lithoporella melobesioides (Foslie) Foslie, 1909

Dey, Rikee, Basso, Daniela, Chakraborty, Arindam, Roy, Lopamudra, Bhaumik, Ajoy Kumar & Ghosh, Amit K., 2023, Rhodolith-forming coralline red algae in the CaCO biofactory - A case study from the Serravallian of tropical northeastern Indian Ocean, Comptes Rendus Palevol 22 (26), pp. 541-567 : 548

Lithoporella melobesioides (Foslie) Foslie, 1909

( Fig. 4A, B)

Mastophora melobesioides Foslie, 1903: 24 .

Lithoporella melobesioides (Foslie) Foslie, 1909: 59 .

DESCRIPTION

Encrusting growth form, forming either single thallus or multiple overgrowth, primigenous filaments composed of large vertically elongated cells forming unistratose layers, thallus dimerous, cells of the VC measuring 12 to 18 µm in length and 22 to 38 µm in diameter, postigenous filaments arise from the primigenous filaments and mostly occur around the conceptacles. Cells of the postigenous filaments measure 16 to 32 µm in length and 8 to 20 µm in diameter. Conceptacles are uniporate, measuring 174 to 400 µm in diameter and 71 to 140 µm in height ( Table 1).

REMARKS

According to Woelkerling (1988) the status of most of the species of Lithoporella is uncertain, though Lithoporella melobesioides has been described as fossils from the Palaeogene and Neogene sediments from different parts of the world. Our observations confirm the description provided byRasser & Piller (1999) for the late Eocene material of the Austrian Molasse zone. The earliest record of the taxon is from the late Jurassic ( Aguirre et al. 2000). In India, Lithoporella melobesioides has been recorded earlier from the late Eocene ( Sarma et al. 2014), Miocene to Holocene ( Kundal et al. 2011, 2016) ( Table 2).