58 CALCAREOUS ALGAE OF THE MIDDLE EAST 



thalli. Munieria is the most fragmentary of all : it survives as little looped or 

 hooked scraps. These have been identified by reference to the figured random cuts 

 of debris of Carozzi (1955a), supplemented by the figures of Radoicic (1959), rather 

 than by comparison with Pia's topotype material (1920). Since the calcification of 

 Munieria is proportionally heavier than that of the comparable Adinoporella, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that in life it was more porous and hence more fragile when the 

 skeleton was dismembered. 



It seems not unlikely that the combined records of the various European and 

 Middle East occurrences, Kimmeridgian to Albian, embrace more than one species: 

 differences in average size and proportions, number of branches per verticil, etc. are 

 suggested by the random thin-sections of various authors (e.g. compare the figures of 

 Radoicic 1958 with those of Delmas & Deloffre 1962). Such a revision would have 

 to be made on much better material than has been available for the present study : 

 the Middle Eastern debris, therefore, is here referred to M. baconica, the only 

 described species. The alleged figure of a complete verticil of a Middle East 

 Munieria (Elliott 1958a, pi. 48, fig. 1) is an error. 



Genus NEOMERIS Lamouroux 1816 



Diagnosis. Calcified tubular dasyclads showing successive verticils of branches 

 in which each primary branch divides into a stalked sporangium and two secondary 

 sterile branches set in the same plane : the calcification surrounds the sporangia and 

 secondaries, but not the primaries, which are weakly calcified or uncalcified. 



Neomeris cretacea Steinmann 

 (PI. 15, figs. 1, 2) 



1899 Neomeris (Herouvalina) cretacea Steinmann : 149, text-figs. 14-18. 

 1955 Neomeris cretacea Steinmann ; Elliott : 126, pi. 1, fig. 7. 

 i960 Neomeris cretacea Steinmann ; Elliott : 223. 



Description (from Middle East material). Slightly irregular tubular calcified 

 dasyclad of 1-10-1-25 external diameter, internal diameter 41-48% external, length 

 (incomplete) seen to 6 mm. ; walls showing close-set verticils of neomerid groupings 

 of sterile branches of about 0-050 mm. diameter and ovoid sporangia of 0-180 mm. 

 length and 0-090 mm. diameter. 



Horizon. Upper Cretaceous of Mexico, Iraq and possibly from circum-Medi- 

 terranean ; top Albian of France (Delmas & Deloffre 1962). 



Material. Two good sections only ; from the Bekhme Formation (Maestrich- 

 tian) of Chia Gara, and from the Aqra/Bekhme Limestone development (Campanian- 

 Maestrichtian) of Gal-i-Mazurka at Amadia ; both localities in Mosul Liwa, Iraq. 

 Numerous random thin-sections, completely or near-completely recrystallized, 

 possibly of the same species, possibly of other species of this genus, occur in the 

 Upper Cretaceous Limestones of Iraqi Kurdistan. 



Remarks. Steinmann's species was described from the Cenomanian of Mexico 

 (Steinmann 1899). His specimens showed a larger size than the Iraqi material : 



