Tournaisian and Viséan Lophophyllum of Gorskiy (1932) from the Kirghiz Steppe and a possible ancestor of a new Bashkirian rugose coral genus from the Donets Basin (Ukraine)

Abstract

All specimens assigned by Gorskiy (1932) to the genus Lophophyllum Milne Edwards and Haime, 1850 are revised, redescribed and reillustrated. The corallite identified by him as a second, specifically indeterminate species of Lophophyllum is here questionably included in Amygdalophyllum Dun and Benson, 1920. For the reminding specimens two new, unnamed genera are suggested. "Lophophyllum" subtortuosum Gorskiy, 1932 belongs to a new, non-dissepimented genus of an unknown family. A possible relationship between gen. nov. 1, sp. nov. 1 and the new Bashkirian genus from the Donets Basin (Ukraine) is proposed.

Early Bashkirian Rugosa (Anthozoa) from the Donets Basin (Ukraine). Part 6. The Family Aulophyllidae Dybowski, 1873

“…Gorskiy, 1932 is the next option available. The brief revision of Lophophyllum subtortuosum Gorskiy, 1932 and of two unnamed species introduced by Gorskiy (1932), made on the basis of peels taken from his originals is at present accepted for publication (Fedorowski 2017b). That brief revision allows the suggestion of a possible relationship of the paratype of Lophophyllum subtortuosum to the specimens included here in Voragoaxum.…”

“…However, that alternative would change the well defined genus Dibunophyllum into a taxonomic waste basket and is therefore rejected. The occurrence of the Voragoaxum-like axial structure in the late Tournaisian specimens of the Kirghiz Steppe (Gorskiy 1932) may suggest their ancestry to Voragoaxum (Fedorowski 2017b). The specimen most similar to Voragoaxum possesses not only the axial area Voragoaxum-like, but also the minor septa free ended.…”