Tertiary Bryozoan genera in the present-day Australiasian fauna — Implications for classification and biogeography

Abstract

The type species of three little-known Tertiary bryozoan genera have been examined and redescribed. Victorian Bitectipora lineata, previously the only recognised species of Bitectiporidae, is shown to be related to a present-day New Zealand species which may now also be included in Bitectipora. Further, the family Bitectiporidae MacGillivray, 1895 is here considered to be a senior subjective synonym of Hippoporinidae Brown, 1952. Schizosmittina, a French Miocene genus, is confirmed to be congeneric with a suite of Holocene Australasian species and removed from the Smittinidae to the Bitectiporidae. However, on the basis of ovicellular morphology, both families are considered to be closely related. The scarcely used superfamily taxon Smittinoidea is re-established for those families with 'smittinid' ovicells (in contradistinction to 'schizoporellid' ovicells). The genus Stephanollona, based on a French Miocene species, is recognised to be a senior subjective synonym of Brodiella (Phidoloporidae), which includes present-day species from Australasia, South Africa, southern South America, Madeira, south-west Britain and the Mediterranean.