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Abstract
Wright, A.J., Plusquellec, Y. & Gourvennec, R., February 2016. Devonian operculate corals (Calceolidae, Cnidaria) from the Massif Armoricain, France. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518
The operculate coral Calceola gervillei Bayle, Citation1878 is described for the first time on the basis of the type material from the Cotentin region of Normandy (North Armorican Domain), from Early Devonian (likely upper Lochkovian to lower Pragian) strata, and is chosen as the type species of the monotypic new genus Gerviphyllum. The new genus is also present in the l’Armorique Formation (lower Pragian) of the Plougastel Peninsula (Central Armorican Domain) as Gerviphyllum sp. cf. G. gervillei. One locality in the upper Emsian (Polygnathus serotinus Conodont Zone) Le Fret Formation, on the northern coast of the Crozon Peninsula, has yielded operculate coral specimens described here as ?Chakeola sp., the first (tentative) record of the genus outside eastern Australia, south China and Vietnam. The operculate coral Calceola collini sp. nov. is described from six localities in the early Middle Devonian (Eifelian: Polygnathus costatus Conodont Zone) Saint-Fiacre Formation of the Plougastel and Crozon Peninsulas (Central Armorican Domain), despite the fact that knowledge of the internal characters, especially of the operculum, of the type species Calceola sandalina is very limited. From an extensive review of published references to Calceola from France, we conclude that only the record of Collin (Citation1929) is valid.
Anthony Wright ([email protected]), GeoQuEST Research Centre, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia; Yves Plusquellec ([email protected]) and Rémy Gourvennec ([email protected]), Université de Bretagne Occidentale, CNRS-UMR 6538 ‘Domaines océaniques’, Laboratoire de Paléontologie, UFR Sciences et Techniques, 6 avenue Le Gorgeu, CS 98837, F-29283, Brest, France. Received 1.10.2015; revised 8.12.2015; accepted 14.12.2015.
Acknowledgements
We thank many colleagues (curators, palaeontologists, stratigraphers), many from Brittany, for their help: G. Beaulieu, Université Catholique de l’Ouest, Angers; J.-F. Becq-Giraudon, Lezais; P. Bouton, Oolithe SARL, Monnières; J.P. Camuzard (retired), geologist, Ouistreham; H. Lardeux (retired), Université de Rennes; B. Mellier, Muséum des sciences naturelles, Angers; B. Mistiaen (retired), Faculté Libre des Sciences et Techniques, Lille; P. Morzadec (retired), Université de Rennes; P.R. Racheboeuf (retired), Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest; S. Regnault, Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, Nantes; J. Tréguier, Muséum des sciences naturelles, Laval and Dieter Weyer, Berlin, Germany. Thanks for collecting fossils go to J.-P. Barbault, E. Glémarec, A. Guidou, J.-L. Charpentier and J.-R. Croguennec, students at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest in 1972, 1980, 1992; J. Le Menn (retired) Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest and P.-A. Jaouen, Crozon, eminent amateur. We are very grateful to Jill Darrell for her help with photography of, and information about, the Thomas Davidson specimens of G. gervillei in the NHM (London), and to Ron Cleevely and Robin Cocks for valuable assistance and information on the poorly known collecting by Davidson at Néhou. Professors Yuanlin Sun and Da-yong Jiang of the Department of Geology and Geological Museum, Peking University, and Dr Yong Yi Zhen of the New South Wales Geological Survey most kindly facilitated study of collections of the late Professor Yoh Shenshing.
Special thanks go to E. Robert and A. Prieur, Université de Claude-Bernard, Lyon 1 for the loan of the type material of Gerviphyllum gervillei and permission to section type material; A. Le Hérissé, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, Ph. Steemans, Université de Liège, Belgique and F. Paris (retired), Université de Rennes, for the palynological study of sediment from the calices of G. gervillei.
We are particularly grateful to Alan E.H. Pedder (emeritus), Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, for discussions about G. gervillei, for most graciously making available photographs and for the gift of specimens of his collection of ‘Rhizophyllum’ from the l’Armorique section, as well as a scan of Lindström’s (1884) fig. 2.
This is a contribution to IGCP Project 591 ‘The Early to Middle Paleozoic Revolution’ and IGCP Project 596 ‘Climate change and biodiversity patterns in the Mid-Palaeozoic’. AJW is grateful to Professors Colin Murray-Wallace and Zenobia Jacobs for provision of facilities in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, where research has been supported by the GeoQuest Research Centre and the Linnean MacLeay Fellowship.