Bull. nat. Hist. Mus. Lond. (Geol.) 53(1): 71-78 
Issued 26 June 1997 
The Cretaceous-Miocene genus Lichenopora 
(Bryozoa), with a description of a new species 
from New Zealand 
DENNIS P. GORDON 
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 14-901, Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand 
PAUL D. TAYLOR 
Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK 
SYNOPSIS. The type species of the cyclostome bryozoan Lichenopora Defrance, L. turbinata from the Eocene of France, is 
redescribed, allowing the concept of the genus to be revised. Colonies of L. turbinata consist of small, acute cones, unlike the 
majority of fossil and Recent species which have been since assigned to Lichenopora. Similar conical-pedunculate species of 
Lichenopora sensu-stricto range from the Lower Cenomanian to the Lower Miocene. The youngest is a species from the Parnell 
Grit (Burdigalian) of Auckland, New Zealand, described here as L. parva sp. nov. 
INTRODUCTION 
_ The bryozoan genus Lichenopora is well-known to bryozoologists 
(e.g. Alvarez 1993) and, indeed, to ecologists and natural historians 
_ in parts of the world where encrusting lichenoporid bryozoans may 
be commonly associated with intertidal and shallow subtidal algae 
_and rocky substrata (e.g. Sinel 1906; Rogick & Croasdale 1949; 
Morton & Miller 1968; Hayward 1988). About 40 nominal species 
of extant Lichenopora and over 100 fossil species have been de- 
scribed. As will be shown in this paper, however, Lichenopora 
| should be restricted to a small suite of Cretaceous to Miocene 
species characterised, inter alia, by conical/pedunculate colonies. 
| The genus was proposed by Defrance (1823) for three bryozoan 
| species having autozooids clustered in short radiating crests not 
| fused centrally to form a star. Two, one conical the other adnate, 
| were Middle Eocene in age; the other, apparently also adnate, was 
Maastrichtian. Only the conical form, L. turbinata, was illustrated, 
_and this was chosen by d’Orbigny (1853: 963), who discovered 
_ additional conical/pedunculate forms, as type species and repre- 
"sentative of the genus: “Pour conserver cette coupe générique, nous 
/prenons pour type la premiére espéce de [Defrance], son L. 
_turbinata, la seule qui présente plusieurs rangées de cellules aux 
lignées en cycles de la partie supérieure’. Although d’Orbigny 
| (1853) cited the genus as being characterised by the particular 
arrangement of autozooids in the colony, he did not include Recent 
adnate forms in it and, indeed, had previously diagnosed the genus 
| as comprising “Bryozoaires coniques, fixées par le point du cone” 
(d’Orbigny 1852: 110), a viewpoint endorsed by Gregory (1909), 
who noted that even Busk (1859, 1875) did not attribute a single 
living species to Lichenopora. Instead, Busk (1859, 1875) used 
“Discoporella, Gray” (error for Disporella Gray, 1848) for the 
living, adnate forms, as did Smitt (1867) when proposing the family 
| Lichenoporidae. 
Prior to Gray’s (1848) introduction of Disporella, some earlier 
| authors (e.g., Milne Edwards 1838; Johnston 1847) had included 
living adnate lichenoporids in Tubulipora, a branching adnate ge- 
| nus with calcified frontal walls and which is not closely related to 
© The Natural History Museum, 1997 
lichenoporids. However, the French palaeontologist Michelin 
(1841-48), evidently following Defrance’s (1823) wider view of 
the genus, included adnate forms in Lichenopora. So too did Reuss 
(1846). Whereas Smitt still used the combination Discoporella 
verrucaria up to 1868, he later changed his view of generic rela- 
tionships, attributing D. verrucaria to Lichenopora without 
explanation (Smitt 1878a,b). This appears to have persuaded Tho- 
mas Hincks, for, in his very influential work British Marine 
Polyzoa (Hincks 1880), he used the genus Lichenopora for 
D. verrucaria (and other living adnate species including D. 
hispida), citing Smitt (1878a) in his synonymy as the only previous 
author to use this combination. The use of Lichenopora for all 
living adnate forms continued until Borg (1933) reintroduced 
Disporella Gray, 1848 as a subgenus of Lichenopora, then as a full 
genus (Borg 1944) to accommodate the type species (D. hispida 
Fleming) and some other species, while continuing to use 
Lichenopora for Madrepora verrucaria Linnaeus and related spe- 
cies. Sabri (1988) pointed out that Brood (1972) was the first 
palaeontologist to use Disporella for fossil species. 
SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY 
Specimen repositories and abbreviations: BMNH, The Natural His- 
tory Museum, London; IGNS, Institute of Geological & Nuclear 
Sciences, Hutt City (formerly New Zealand Geological Survey, 
NZGS); MNHN, Muséum National d’ Histoire Naturelle, Paris. 
The species described were all studied by scanning electron 
microscopy (SEM), using type and/or topotypic specimens. Most 
SEM was carried out on uncoated specimens in an environmental 
chamber attached to an ISI ABT-55 scanning electron microscope. 
This generated back-scattered electron images in contrast to the 
secondary electron images which are used in conventional SEM of 
coated specimens. All figures are uncoated scanning electron 
micrographs. Morphometric determinations were made using an 
eyepiece micrometer affixed to a Wild M7 binocular microscope, or 
from SEM micrographs where necessary. 
