Russoella Barattolo 1984

Barattolo, Filippo, Abad, Morteza Taherpour Khalil & Introduction, Mehdi Ashrafi, 2014, Dasycladalean Fossil Green Algae From The Maastrichtian-Paleocene Of Balkh Province (N Afghanistan), Acta Palaeontologica Romaniae 10 (1 - 2), pp. 1-2 : 88

Genus Russoella Barattolo 1984

The genus was established by Barattolo (1984) as parataxon in order to take account of isolated reproductive organs displaying a shape similar to those occurring in the genera Zittelina and Triploporella , but the identification of the native alga is unable. He diagnosed that they were small, relatively flattened lenticular bodies containing a limited number of globular cavities situated on the equatorial plane and that the fossils could most likely be ascribed to dasycladalean reproductive organs and the cavities to the space occupied by the cysts.

The typical planar arrangement of cysts and the fact that all cavities open to the equatorial zone mark the main features of the genus, may be related to an analogous mechanism of cyst production, although in a separate phyletic context. In time, the genus enriched of further species: Granier and Deloffre (1993) referred to Russoella the species Terquemella (?) triangularis Ramalho (1971: p.180 , pl. VIII fig. 3, pl. XXXII figs. 1- 3); Dragastan and Richter (2003) describe two new taxa ( Russoella iginiodieni and Russoella circularis ).

Dispersed in the micrite of bryozoan-rich packstone (S4 = sample BA.4250), several small calcareous bodies showed the distinctive aspect of sections of Russoella (see Barattolo, 1984, fig. 11).