Tabulophyllum Fenton and Fenton, 1924

Schröder, Stefan & Soto, Francisco, 2003, Lower Devonian (Emsian) rugose corals from the Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 48 (4), pp. 547-558 : 548

Genus Tabulophyllum Fenton and Fenton, 1924

Type species (by original designation): Tabulophyllum rectum Fenton and Fenton, 1924 .

Diagnosis.—See Sorauf 1989: 33.

Remarks.—In general, only solitary corals are currently assigned to the genus Tabulophyllum , and the classification of colonial forms as Tabulophyllum by Soshkina (1952), Bulvanker (1958) and Ivaniya (1965, 1980) has been rejected ( McLean and Pedder 1987; Sorauf 1989). The new species of Tabulophyllum described herein is apparently solitary but displays a distinctive growth known as “quasi−colonial” and such solitary species with few lateral offsets should also be included in the generic concept of Tabulophyllum .

Similar structures are also known from the closely related kyphophyllid genus Tarphyphyllum McLean and Pedder, 1984 . Its type species T. besti McLean and Pedder, 1984 is a solitary species developing few offsets ( McLean and Pedder 1984: pl. 11: 4, 7, 10), whereas one paratype is weakly branching to fasciculate ( McLean and Pedder 1984: pl. 10: 12). Internally Tarphyphyllum differs from Tabulophyllum only in having a more strongly developed stereozone of dilated septa, masking the dissepiments, a more simple tabularium, and less numerous dissepiments. Because of the striking resemblances between both genera Sorauf (1998: 49) suggests that Tarphyphyllum should rather be regarded as subgenus of Tabulophyllum . Probably some of the weakly colonial species previously assigned to Tabulophyllum should be removed to Tarphyphyllum . Colonial species of Tarphyphyllum may also be very difficult to separate from Smithiphyllum Birenheide, 1962 ( McLean and Pedder 1984: 28; Sorauf 1998: 49).

Occurrence.—The stratigraphic occurrence of Tabulophyllum is mainly Upper Devonian and the genus is globally distributed in the Frasnian. Only a few species are known from the Lower Devonian of Australia and Belgium ( Tsien 1977; Hill 1942; Sorauf 1989; Zhen 1995). However, the known Lower Devonian species assigned to Tabulophyllum closely resemble the Upper Devonian forms in their general morphology, withlong majorsepta commonly interrupted by large lonsdaleoid dissepiments.