CALCAREOUS ALGAE OF THE MIDDLE EAST 17 



cavities 0-040-0-055 mm., and not curved or hooked as in A. dyumatsenae Pia from 

 the Indian Danian (Pia 1936b). The Middle Eastern material, on the basis of the 

 few available dimensions and characters, seems to vary little beyond this, and the 

 name is adopted. A few examples from the subsurface Garagu of Kirkuk show 

 exceptional sporangial diameters of 0-065 mm., but they occur in random transverse 

 cuts only. A. endoi Praturlon (1964), from the Italian lower Cretaceous, is 

 described as a spicule, slightly larger with larger sporangial cavities, which however 

 are more regularly and peripherally arranged to give a starred appearance in thin- 

 section. 



A . antiqua is more common in Lower than Upper Cretaceous in my experience, but 

 ranges from bottom to top of the system. If the spicules are the remains of more 

 than one botanical species in this long period, there is no apparent evidence of this in 

 the microfossils as preserved. They should not be confused with the micro- 

 problematicum Coptocampylodon (Elliott 1963a) which resembles an acicularian in 

 transverse cut, but is readily distinguishable by the longitudinal sections normally 

 associated. 



1 Acicularia elongata Carozzi 



1947 Acicularia elongata : Carozzi : 13, figs. 1-8. 



Remarks. Carozzi's species, from the Swiss Upper Jurassic, is a distinctively 

 elongate spicule of rather ragged outline. In the Upper Jurassic of Jabal Kaur, 

 Oman, Arabia, remains occur which are possibly of the Swiss species, but are not 

 well enough preserved to permit of a positive reference. They are associated with 

 Pianella gigantea Carozzi and the microcoprolite Favreina salevensis (Parejas), also 

 described from the Swiss Upper Jurassic. 



Acicularia (Briardina) sp. 



(PI. 1, fig. 6) 



1913 Acicularia section Briardina Munier-Chalmas ; L. & J. Morellet : 33. 



Remarks. In the Palaeocene Limestones of the Batinah Coast, Oman, one or 

 two examples of a small acicularian apparently referable to this section or subgenus 

 have been noted. The best shows in longitudinal thin-section as a needle or narrow 

 wedge-shaped spicule, 1 mm. long, 0-22 mm. wide at the outer end and slightly 

 hooked at the inner (pointed) end : the sporangia are 0-078 mm. in diameter, in a 

 double row, narrowing to a single on the upper face. The section cuts at the thinner 

 end through the sporangia of the lower face, the elongate spicules of species of 

 Briardina being thin, with flat or slightly concave upper and lower surfaces. 



This may be the earliest representative of the subgenus, the Paris Basin species 

 being Lutetian or later in age (Morellet 1913, 1922), and the acicularians from the 

 Montian (Morellet 1940) not being referred to the subgenus. 



Genus ACROPORELLA Praturlon 1964 

 Diagnosis (after Praturlon). " Not segmented DASYCLADACEAE having 



