46 



CHOUTEAU CORALS 



taining two to four possibly free septa; 

 other septa fused into crescentic ring ; tabu- 

 lae thin; dissepiments absent; minor septa 

 occur only in very advanced stages. In longi- 

 tudinal section fused tips of septa form 

 solid structure on cardinal side w^ith tabulae 

 occupying axial position. 



Genotype. — Meniscophyllum minutum 

 Simpson, 1900. 



Occurrence. — Low^er part of Chouteau 

 limestone (unrestricted), Sedalia, Missouri; 

 ( ?) Rockford beds, Rockford, Indiana; ( ?) 

 Low^er Carboniferous shales (Zi), County 

 Sligo, Ireland. 



Remarks. — Heptaphyllum closely resem- 

 bles Meniscophyllum in adult stages, but 

 the writer has not found stages as early 

 as those figured by Clark, therefore, the 

 equivalence of the two genera is disputable. 

 HiU (1937, p. 25) grouped Meniscophyl- 

 lum with Allotropiophyllum, but these two 

 genera are dissimilar in the light of the pres- 

 ent emendation. Hill (1940, p. 145) com^ 

 pared Meniscophyllum with Zaphrentis de- 

 lanouei^ hut the morphology of Meniscoph- 

 yllum had not been properly established at 

 that time. 



Meniscophyllum minutum Simpson 

 Plate 5, figures 1-4; Plate 16, figures 20-22 



Meniscophyllum minutum Simpson, 1900, New 

 York State Mus. Bull. 39, vol. 8, pp. 200, 201, 

 figs. 1-4 on p. 200. 



Meniscophyllum minutum, Grabau, 1928, Pa- 

 laeontologia Sinica, ser. B., vol. 2, fasc. 2, 

 pp. 138, 139, 149. 



Meniscophyllum, Hill, 1937, Royal Soc. Queens- 

 land Proc, vol. 48, p. 24, text fig. 14. 



Meniscophyllum minutum, Sanford, 1939, Am. 

 Jour. Sci., vol. 237, p. 322, fig. lOBi, IOB2. 



Externals. — Small, ceratoid to trochoid; 

 epitheca thick, smooth, generally weathered 

 to reveal interseptal ridges; calyx deep, 

 sharply concave with 17 to 19 majors almost 

 reaching center; cardinal septum and pos- 

 sibly first septum on left in fossula on con- 

 vex side ; calyces of very old specimens ex- 

 ceedingly deep with minor septa rudimen- 

 tary ; some septa on counter side either short 

 and free or long and fused to stereotheca of 

 cardinal side. 



Transverse sections. — In section just be- 

 low calyx (diameters 7.2 by 6.5 mm), 18 



majors, 2 on counter side almost fused to 

 other 16, all having tips fused into crescentic 

 solid area. 



In slightly later stage of small specimen 

 (4.8 mm reconstructed), at least 3 and 

 possibly 4 free septa on counter side with 

 15 or possibly 16 fused septa elsewhere. 



In late neanic section (diameters 1.5 by 

 2.0 mm), 11 septa arranged in four groups 

 with large fossula in cardinal position. 



Longitudinal section. — ^Tabulae convex 

 peripherally, sloping obliquely downward to- 

 ward epitheca, concave in axial region ; sep- 

 tal traces thick on convex side where their 

 horseshoe shaped arc of fusion (as seen in 

 transverse section) is cut. 



Occurrence. — ^Although Simpson stated 

 (1900, p. 200) the type locality to be 

 "Lower Carbonic, Missouri," the labels and 

 the type catalogue read^ "Kinderhook beds, 

 Rockford, Indiana." The writer has not 

 found duplicates in any known collections 

 of Rockford material. The specimens stud- 

 ied are from localities 7 and 9. 



Material. — Specimens studied, 51. Holo- 

 type. No. 3540/2 (Simpson, fig. 3) ; para- 

 type, No. 3540/3 (Simpson, fig. 4) ; para- 

 type. No. 3540/1 (Simpson, fig. 2); all 

 in New York State Museum. Studied ma- 

 terial : University of Cincinnati Nos. 3359a, 

 24394, 24395 (two specimens which were 

 paratypes of Z. tenella) , 24407 (as paratype 

 of A. corniculum Miller), University of 

 Missouri Nos. 362, 1041, 1044, 1046, not 

 numbered. 



Remarks. — Because Simpson did not 

 select a holotype, the writer designates the 

 figured thin-section (Simpson, 1900, fig. 3 

 on p. 200) as the holotype. It is possible that 

 fig. 4 (idem) was made from a different sec- 

 tion of the same specimen, but this cannot be 

 substantiated. The specimen represented in 

 fig. 1 (idem) was never entered in the origi- 

 nal collections,^ but it may have been one of 

 the sectioned specimens. 



Grabau (1928, p. 139) wrongly identi- 

 fied the position of the cardinal fossula be- 

 cause he assumed that the sketchy figure 

 (Simpson, 1900, fig. 1) was in error regard- 

 ing the location of the interseptal ridges. 



^ Correspondence, Winifred Goldring, November 17, 

 1942. 



8 Correspondence, Winifred Goldring, November 17, 

 1942. 



