Research paper
Re-assessment of the type collections of Maslov’s species of Hapalidiales (Rhodophyta). Species originally attributed to Lithothamnium, Mesophyllum and Palaeothamnium
JUAN C. BRAGA
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Fuentenueva s.n., Universidad de Granada, 18002 Granada, Spain. jbraga@ugr.es
Corresponding author
DAVIDE BASSI
Dipartimento di Fiscia e Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, via Saragat 1, I-44122 Ferrara, Italy. bsd@unife.it
JULIO AGUIRRE
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Fuentenueva s.n., Universidad de Granada, 18002 Granada, Spain. jaguirre@ugr.es
ELENZA ZAKREVSKAYA
Vernadsky State Geological Museum RAS, Mkhovaya st. 11, bl. 2, 103009 Moscow, Russia. zey@sgm.ru
ÉLEONORA P. RADIONOVA
Geological Institute of Russian, Academy of Science, Pyzherskii pcr. 7, 109017 Moscow, Russia. radionova@geo.tv-sign.ru
ABSTRACT
This is the third and last paper of a series devoted to the revision of the types of the species and infra-specific taxa of coralline red algae established in two monographs by Maslov (1956a, 192). Maslov was a Russian palaeontologist who described many taxa of fossil calcareous algae from the former USSR from 1929 to 1973. As in other publications from those decades, Maslov’s new species and intraspecific taxa were separated by characters of questionable significance from a modern taxonomic point of view. In this study, as un previous contributions, a number of types of fossil coralline algae Maslov’s original collection are re-assessed with a modern morpho-anatomic taxonomic approach. The collection consists of thin sections currentlu housed in the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences of Moscow. This paper deals in particular with the types of species attributed of Maslov to the genera Lithothamnion (as Lithothamnium), Mesophyllum and Palaeothamnium (Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta). According to our reassessment, only the type of Mesophyllum schenckii var. corticesum can be confidently assigned to a currently accepted genus within the family Hapalidiaceae, subfamily Melobesioideae. The types of Lithothamnion iorii, Palaeothamnium kassovense, Mesophyllum kutense, Lithothamnion microcellulosum, Lithothamnion praefructiculosum, and Lithothamnion thcernomoricum possess multiporate conceptacles and non-coaxial ventral core and can be attributed to the subfamily Melobesioideae. The lack of epithallial cells, however, prevents any precise generic assignment within the Lithothamnion, Phymatolithon, Clathtomotphum and Synarthrophyton complex. Finally, the lack of significant characters prevents any confident attribution of the type of “Lithothamnion saxorum var. korolukae” to any defined generic or suprageneric taxon within the Hapalidiales or the Corallinales. The absence of reproductive structures int ye types of “Lithothamnion caucasicum”, “Lithothamnion (?) intergeminum” and “Lithothamnion (?) suhumii” prevents the placement of these taxa in any order and family within Hapalidiales, Corallinales or Sporolithales.
Keywords: Calcareous algae, taxonomy, Melobesioideae, Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta.
How to cite: Braga, J.C., Bassi, D., Aguirre, J., Zakrevskaya, E. & Radionova, E. P. 2015. Re-assessment of the type collections of Maslov’s species of Hapalidiales (Rhodophyta). Species originally attributed to Lithothamnium, Mesophyllum and Palaeothamnium. Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, 30 (2), 189-208.
Received 01 June 2013, Accepted 15 January 2014, Published 31 December 2015
https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.30.2.17250
