Abstract
A new dasycladalean alga Salpingoporella? popgrigorei n. sp. was identified in Pădurea Craiului Mountains (northern Apuseni, Romania) in the Lower Aptian limestone of the Valea Bobdei Member. The new alga was found within the external platform coarse bioclastic facies with fragments of corals, sclerosponges, bivalves (including rudists), gastropods, echinoderms, brachiopods, and bryozoans. The micropaleontological assemblage consists of foraminifera, calcareous algae, rare rivulariacean-type cyanobacteria, and some problematic microfossils. The deposits are Early Bedoulian in age, as clearly indicated by the orbitolinid foraminifera Orbitolinopsis pygmaea, Paracoskinolina sunnilandensis and Palorbitolina lenticularis. Salpingoporella? popgrigorei n. sp. is a medium-sized dasycladalean alga showing funnel-like laterals with an euspondyl arrangement. The laterals consist of two distinctive parts. The proximal part is narrow and flattened. The distal part widens relatively suddenly, and then narrows slightly before the final widening towards the exterior, in the place where the laterals most probably formed an assimilatory cortex. The distinctive features of the new species are represented by the shape of the laterals. The new Salpingoporella best resembles the Upper Hauterivian–Lower Barremian p.p. Salpingoporella genevensis (Conrad), especially due to the quadrangular aspect of the laterals in middle-deep tangential section. However, differences refer to the laterals’ general shape, and to the typical features of the laterals in deep tangential section of Salpingoporella? popgrigorei n. sp.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is part of the research project “The Urgonian biosedimentary system in the Romanian Carpathians. Comparisons with other areas of the Tethyan realm” founded by the CNCSIS grant 1330. I thank Marc A. Conrad (Geneve) and Felix Schlagintweit (Muenchen) for their remarks on the first version of the paper, which helped in its improvement. I also thank the reviewers Jochen Kuss and Andre Freiwald for their valuable remarks and help.
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Bucur, I.I. Salpingoporella? popgrigorei, a new species of Dasycladales (calcareous algae) from the Lower Aptian deposits of Pădurea Craiului (northern Apuseni Mountains, Romania). Facies 53, 377–388 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-007-0113-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-007-0113-5