CALCAREOUS ALGAE OF THE MIDDLE EAST 21 



European fossils, but good series of solid verticils free from matrix would be needed 

 to evaluate this decisively. Nothing like the distinctive A. sulcata Alth (Pia 

 1920 : 100, fig. 20) has been seen. 



Actinoporella podolica is highly distinctive in random thin-section. Its thin- 

 walled but coherent fragments cannot easily be confused with any species of Clypeina, 

 whose verticils are more massive, except perhaps the Valanginian C. marteli 

 Emberger, which has only about half the number of rays or branches per verticil. 

 Munieria, apparently more solid, is much more fragmentary, and shows as smaller, 

 more problematic debris : possibly its calcium carbonate was initially more fragile. 



Genus ANTHRACOPORELLA Pia 



Diagnosis. Calcified unsegmented branched cylindrical dasyclad with close-set, 

 aspondyl dichotomous side-branches. 



Anthracoporella, described by Pia (1920), is a primitive dasyclad from the late 

 Palaeozoic. The tubular thallus is exceptional in branching, often at a wide angle. 

 The stem-cell is proportionally large in diameter to the surrounding wall-thickness in 

 which the aspondyl dichotomous side-branches are very numerous, fine and closely 

 set. The calcification may not have reached quite to the stem-cell, and the lateral 

 branches probably projected considerably beyond the calcified zone. 



In a later paper Pia (1937) listed occurrences of the type-species A. spectabilis, 

 initially described from the Upper Carboniferous of the Austrian Southern Alps. 

 Species of the genus are characteristic of the Upper Carboniferous and Permian of 

 Alpine Europe and Asia, and occur also in the southwestern United States and in 

 Madagascar. 



In the revision of the Middle Eastern material for this study two species are 

 recognized, the distinction being based mostly on size. A . spectabilis Pia is much the 

 larger, with outer tube-diameters commonly up to 5 mm. or more (5-8 mm. quoted 

 by Pia as a maximum ; Bebout and Coogan (1964) record up to 8-9 mm.). Smaller 

 individuals or branches of this species, associated with the larger, may measure as 

 little in diameter as 1-5 mm., but are exceptional. The second species, now described 

 as new, is represented by solitary occurrences of tubes of diameter of less than 1 mm. 

 This was at first considered a dwarfed variety and later in time than the large type- 

 species, but their ranges overlap, and they seem distinct. 



Anthracoporella spectabilis Pia 



(PI. 2, figs. 1, 2) 



1920 Anthracoporella spectabilis Pia : 15, fig. 3, pi. 1, figs. 7— II. 

 1937 A. spectabilis Pia ; Pia : 795, 809, 822. 

 i960 A. spectabilis Pia ; Elliott : 219. 



Description. Thallus of branched tubular dasyclad pattern, up to 5-6 mm. or 

 more in external diameter, stem-cell cavity large, d/D ratio 50-80%, the larger 

 examples being progressively thinner- walled. Side-branches simple, about 0-040 

 mm. diameter, sometimes dichotomous, aspondyl in arrangement, crowded and very 



