CALCAREOUS ALGAE OF THE MIDDLE EAST 67 



divergence, but it forms a useful character at present in classifying these normally 

 fragmentary and rather unsatisfactory dasyclads. Both these genera are normally 

 represented almost entirely by wall-fragments : straight, curved or sinuous in 

 section, and they are considered to be the broken remains of the very fragile thin 

 hood-like outer calcification-zone of dasyclads whose stem-cell and branch-systems 

 are necessarily unknown. A comparison has been made with the Carboniferous 

 Koninckopora as restored by Wood (1943), who regarded them as very closely 

 related. However the outer polygonal mesh of Koninckopora is very different in 

 appearance to the pored walls of Epimastopora and Pseudoepimastopora, even if all 

 three are representatives of a morphologically similarly-situated outer calcification- 

 zone. 



The fragmentary remains of the latter two genera have led to a proliferation of 

 species based on wall- and pore-measurements (see summary in Johnson 1963). 

 The calcified structures themselves have usually been reconstructed as originally 

 globular or tubular. Endo (1961) cited P. pertusus as type-species, and referred his 

 earlier E. japonica also to the genus. Subsequently H. Fliigel (1963) has trans- 

 ferred both E. likana Kochansky & Herak and E. iwaizakiensis Endo (Permian of 

 Jugoslavia and Japan respectively), to Pseudoepimastopora, figuring both from the 

 Middle East. P. iwaizakiensis, from the Taurus (Southern Turkey) Permian of 

 which the Iraqi Kurdistan Permian is a continuation, is shown intact in presumably 

 near-longitudinal section as a very thin-walled elongate-oval. (H. Fliigel 1963). 



Remains of Pseudoepimastopora, usually fragmentary, abound in the Zinnar 

 Formation, the lower portion of the Chia Zairi or Iraqi Permian System. For- 

 tunately one or two whole specimens have been seen, so permitting description of a 

 distinctive new species. 



Pseudoepimastopora ampullacea sp. nov. 

 (PI. 18, figs. 1, 2, 5-7) 



Description. Pseudeopimastopora of " waxing-and-waning " morphology, cir- 

 cular in cross-section, length about 4-0 mm., diameters (three successive maxima) 

 1-56, 1-43, 0-91 mm. : thin-walled, wall-thickness 0-078-0-104 mm., pores commenc- 

 ing on the inside as narrow canals, and swelling within the wall-thickness to near- 

 spherical cavities of 0-052-0-065 mm. diameter, with outer opening of varying size, 

 commonly about half maximum diameter ; interpore spaces (solid wall) very 

 narrow so that there are about 16 pores per 1 mm. of wall-length, outer apertures of 

 pores believed to be close-set in alternating levels. 



Horizon. Permian of northern Iraq. 



Holotype. The specimen figured in PI. 18, fig. 1 from the Permian Zinnar 

 Formation, Ora, Mosul Liwa, Iraq. V. 52089. 



Paratypes. The specimens figured in PI. 18, figs. 2, 7, Zinnar Formation, Ora 

 and Harur, Mosul Liwa, Iraq. V. 52090, 52094. 



Other Material. Numerous random thin-sections : many specimens frag- 

 mentary. Same formation and area. 



