Columnocoenia falkenbergensis, Baron-Szabo, 2021

Baron-Szabo, Rosemarie Christine, 2021, Upper Barremian-lower Aptian scleractinian corals of central Europe (Schrattenkalk Fm., Helvetic Zone, Austria, Germany, Switzerland), Zootaxa 4960 (1), pp. 1-199 : 79

Columnocoenia falkenbergensis n. sp.

v1997 Columnocoenia cf. ksiazkiewiczi ksiazkiewiczi MORYCOWA, 1971 : BARON- SZABO, p. 58, Pl. 4, Fig. 3.

v2014 Columnocoenia ksiazkiewiczi MORYCOWA, 1964 : BARON- SZABO, p. 30, Pl. 17, Figs. 3–4 .

2020 Eocolumastrea sp.: KOŁODZIEJ & BUCUR, p. 8, Fig. 7H .

Holotypus. ZSH H-KU–793, designated here.

Derivatio nominis. Refers to the location from which the material was collected (Falkenberg, Bavaria, Germany).

Locus typicus. Falkenberg, Bavaria, Germany.

Stratum typicum. Schrattenkalk Formation, Upper Schrattenkalk, lower Aptian.

Diagnosis. Columnocoenia having 24+s4 septa (often 26–28, up to around 40 in largest corallites) and corallite diameter ranging between 3–4.5 mm; in areas of intense budding, corallite diameters range between 1–2 mm having septa of 20 or less. Distance of corallite centers is 3–6.5 mm.

Description. Massive, plocoid colony; corallites are subcircular to elongate in outline. Costosepta arranged radially in corallites of up to around 2 mm in diameter, becoming bilaterally arranged in larger corallites. Three complete cycles with the beginning of a fourth cycle are present in corallites of 3 mm in diameter or larger.

Comparison. The new species differs from other Lower Cretaceous species in having larger corallites (C. ksiazkiewiczi MORYCOWA, 1964: 2 –3.5 mm; C. bucovinensis MORYCOWA, 1971 : 1.2–2.3 mm; C. elachia BARON- SZABO, 2002: 0.9–1.3 mm). From most Upper Cretaceous species C. falkenbergensis differs in having smaller corallites ( C. lamberti ALLOITEAU, 1957: 6 –8.5 mm; C. oppenheimi BEAUVAIS, 1982: 4–6 mm). From the Upper Cretaceous C. hofergrabensis ( BEAUVAIS, 1982) , the new species differs in having a greater number of septa (always more than 3 cycles of septa in C. falkenbergensis ; a maximum of 3 cycles of septa in C. hofergrabensis ).

Material. ZSH H-KU–793 (Falkenberg, Germany) (holotype); additional specimen (paratype): SNSB-BSPG– 1997 V 85 (BARON- SZABO coll.) (Schrattenkalk Fm., Upper Schrattenkalk, Kürental area, Germany, lower Aptian) (for locality coordinates see APPENDIX TABLE 5).

Distribution. Lower Aptian of southern Germany (Upper Schrattenkalk, Bavaria), middle Aptian of Romania.

Remarks. MORYCOWA & MARCOPOULOU- DIACANTONI (2002, p. 47–48) already suggested that the Schrattenkalk material assigned to ksiazkiewiczi differed from MORYCOWA’ S species in having larger corallites.

Figures

FIGURE 3 European lower Aptian shorelines. Stipple indicates land areas. 1: area from which the corals of the Swiss localities were derived (paleocoordinates of Hergiswil: 32° 24’ N, 18° 48’ E). 2: area from which the corals of the Austrian and German localities were derived (paleocoordinates of the area Allgäu Schrattenkalk/Brandalpe-Kuhberg: 31° 54’ N, 20° 18’ E) (map modified from TYSON & FUNNELL, 1987; paleocoordinates from Paleobiology Database [paleobiodb.org).

FIGURE 4 Simplified sedimentary succession of the Allgäu Upper Schrattenkalk at Mitteleck, southern Germany (coordinates 47° 23’ N, 10° 6’ E) (modified from BARON-SZABO, 1997).

FIGURE 7 Simplified Lower Cretaceous paleogeographic map showing the occurrences of Schrattenkalk species found elsewhere during the upper Barremian‒lower Aptian. Shown are the numbers of common species (distributional pattern modified from BARON-SZABO, 1997; Paleomap modified from Paleomap project SCOTESE [2014] at www.scotese.com; and TENNANT, et al., 2017); asterisk=Schrattenkalk corals.