34 CALCAREOUS ALGAE OF THE MIDDLE EAST 



level) : Sarmord Formation of Jebel Gara and Garagu Formation of Banik (both 

 Mosul Liwa) ; also subsurface Garagu at Kirkuk. 



It has also been seen in the bottom Cretaceous at Haushi, Southern Oman, Arabia, 

 where it was accompanied by the dasyclads Acicularia, Salpingoporella, and Gripho- 

 porella, also by Permocalculus : the level was independently dated by foraminifera. 



Remarks. The details given above are summarized from Carozzi's descriptions. 

 His reconstruction shows a somewhat peculiar little alga, consisting of inverted 

 fluted cones inserted within one another vertically. His thin-sections substantiate 

 the detail quoted above and also show further detail. This species, if correctly 

 interpreted as a Clypeina, departs more from the usual verticil-morphology than 

 other species. In the Swiss Purbeckian (terminal Jurassic) C. parvula occurs in 

 beds interpreted as freshwater, its companion fossils being charophytes and 

 ostracods. 



In the bottom Cretaceous, marine Valanginian level, of the Middle East there 

 occur not uncommonly in thin-section preparations sections corresponding mostly 

 to the transverse cuts of the bases of verticils as figured by Carozzi. Occasionally 

 vertical cuts are seen, but never the transverse cuts he figures of the upper portions 

 of fertile verticils, which show the sporangial cavities, outer collar, and other detail. 

 The number of flutings is usually from 8 to 10, and the size-range falls for the most 

 part in that quoted above from Carozzi, though one large example had an external 

 diameter of 0-6 mm. 



These little fossils, with occasional charophytes and ostracods, occur in Iraq to 

 form a subordinate element in a rich marine dasyclad and other algal flora, which 

 includes species of Actinoporella, Cylindroporella, Salpingoporella, Permocalculus, 

 Lithocodium etc., also foraminifera and microproblematica, marine mollusca and 

 corals. They are interpreted as Clypeina parvula from coastal freshwater beds, 

 which, together with the charophytes, have been washed out to sea before burial. 

 Only the more resistant parts of the verticils survived this derivation, which would 

 explain the absence of the more fragile reproductive structures. 



Clypeina spp. (Cretaceous) 

 i960 Clypeina spp. Elliott : 225. 



Three records only of the genus may be made for the whole of the Cretaceous 

 examined above the basal portion (Berriasian-Valanginian) yielding the species 

 already described. 



The specimen figured as " Munieria baconica Deecke " (Elliott 1958, pi. 48, fig. 1) 

 is not of this species and may be a Clypeina ; it comes from the Aptian-Albian of 

 Surdash, Sulemania Liwa, Iraq. 



Another occurrence is in the Cenomanian, subsurface Mahilban Formation of 

 Fallujah Well, Dulaim Liwa, Iraq. Fragmentary material indicated a Clypeina sp. 

 of estimated whorl-diameter 3-25 mm., showing approximately 50 fused adjacent 

 sporangial tubules of 1-04 mm. length, circular in cross-section and of 0-36 mm. near- 



