CALCAREOUS ALGAE OF THE MIDDLE EAST 75 



Italy (Lorenz 1902 ; Pia 1918, 1920 ; Thieuloy 1959 ; Sartoni & Crescenti 1962), is a 

 slightly smaller species normally (external diameter 0-3-0-5 mm.), though Thieuloy 's 

 figures appear to indicate up to 1-5 mm. for this dimension. It is however much 

 thicker-walled, the relation of internal to external diameters being about 40% (38- 

 45%) as against 60% (55-66%) in S. arabica. Because of this, the branches in the 

 latter rarely show much of the inner narrower portion seen in the European form, if 

 indeed this was ever present. S. texana from the Albian of U.S.A. (Johnson 1965), 

 compared by its author with S. miihlbergii, may similarly be distinguished from 

 S. arabica by dimensions and proportions. 



S. arabica ranges from bottom Cretaceous as high as Albian ; it is wide-spread, 

 but rarely abundant. 



Salpingoporella dinarica Radoicic 

 (PI. 21, fig. 4 ; PI. 22) 



1959 Salpingoporella dinarica Radoicid : 33, pis. 3-5. 

 i960 Hensonella cylindrica Elliott : 229, pi. 8, fig. 1. 



The descriptions of Radoicic (1959) and myself (Elliott i960) refer to the same 

 organism. Radoicic interprets this as an alga, and described it as a species of 

 Salpingoporella, comparing it carefully with S. miihlbergii of the same age. I 

 described it as a problematicum, since my interpretation of the wall-structure 

 indicated that it differed very considerably from other dasyclads. 



This organism is Tethyan Lower Cretaceous in age, and is especially characteristic 

 of the Barremian-Aptian level. The type-description of S. dinarica lists it from 

 numerous localities in Jugoslavia at this horizon, and Sartoni & Crescenti (1962) and 

 de Castro (1963) figure and record it under the algal name, with Hensonella in 

 synonymy, from the Aptian of Italy. Elliott (i960 ; 1962a) recorded Hensonella 

 from Iraq and Oman (a full list of Middle Eastern localities is given below), Persia, 

 Algeria and Borneo : Lower Cretaceous, various levels. It has also been seen in 

 material from the Upper Aptian, Mededine area, S. Tunisia. Reiss (1961) recorded 

 it from the Aptian of Galilee, Israel, and regarded it as a dasycladacean alga. Dr. 

 M. S. Edgell {in litt., May i960) also stressed the dasycladacean nature of Iranian 

 material. 



Most of these records clearly refer to the same organism. Comparison of 

 Radoicic's and Elliott's descriptions show that the same features are common to 

 both, though the type-figures selected emphasize slightly different characteristics. 

 The organism occurs as hollow cylindrical or near-cylindrical tubes, circular in cross- 

 section, and of varying external diameters up to 0-57 mm. The internal diameter 

 varies from 54-70% of the external : lower values up to 60% or a little more are 

 more common. The walls show a thin inner dark amorphous layer, finely micro- 

 crystalline under a high power, and a thick outer layer (0-013 mm - an d 0-104 mm - 

 respectively in one typical example). This latter, which occupies most of the wall- 

 thickness, is yellowish in thin-section appearance : it shows innumerable fine radial 

 subparallel lines or cracks, and, at intervals, coarse canals which extend to widen at 

 the outer surface to occasion shallow pores. In specimens of regular form these are 



