Family CERIOPORIDAE Reuss, 1866

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Introduction

The family Cerioporidae was introduced by Reuss (1866) for European fossils. In addition, Waters (1879) introduced the family Heteroporidae for two Recent species which he attributed to the Cretaceous fossil genus Heteropora de Blainville (1830). As constituted, the family comprises a very large number of late Mesozoic genera and a few Recent genera with poorly known fossil histories. Borg (1933) reviewed the Recent Heteroporidae, recognising four genera, but in 1944 proposed the families Canuellidae, for Borgiola (formerly Canuella) and Densiporidae for Densipora. He considered that Tretocycloecia Canu (1919) should be included in Heteropora, and that the Tretocycloeciidae Canu (1919) as a consequence was submerged in the Heteroporidae. Taxonomy of this group is presently tortuous. Brood (1972) considered Heteropora to be a junior synonym of Ceriopora Goldfuss, and that Cerioporidae should be substituted for Heteroporidae; he also proposed that Tretocycloecia be retained, within the Cerioporidae, for all Recent species of Heteropora.

Recent cerioporids are characterised by erect, capitate or branched colonies, typically pedunculate, attached by an encrusting base. The surface appears honeycombed, with autozooid apertures and smaller kenozooid apertures closely packed on all surfaces. The brood chamber is a common extrazooidal space, immersed within the colony and visible only as a slight swelling on the surface. Few Recent species are known. Heteropora neozelanica Busk (1879) is distributed from southern New Zealand to the Subantarctic regions. Neofungella claviformis (Waters 1904) has small, capitate colonies and is endemic to Antarctica. It was originally found with Hornera antarctica, from deep water in the Bellingshausen Sea. The brood chambers were described .

The earliest fossil record of a species of Heteropora is from the Early Jurassic of Canada (Taylor 1993).

General References

Blainville, H.M.D. de 1830. Zoophytes. In, Levrault, F.G. (ed.). Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, dans lequel on traitre méthodiquement des differéns êtres de la nature, considérés soit en eux-mêmes, d'après l'état actuel de nos connoissances, soit relativement a l'utlité qu'en peuvent retirer la médicine, l'agriculture, le commerce et les arts. Paris : Le Normat Tome 60 546 pp, 68 pls (+ pp. 547-631).

Borg, F. 1933. A revision of the Recent Heteroporidae (Bryozoa). Zoologiska Bidrag Från Uppsala 14: 253-294

Borg, F. 1944. The stenolaematous Bryozoa. Further Zoological Results of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1903 3(5): 1-276

Brood, K. 1972. Cyclostomatous Bryozoa from the Upper Cretaceous and Danian in Scandinavia. Stockholm Contributions in Geology 26: 1-464

Busk, G. 1879. Polyzoa. pp. 193-199 in . An account of the petrological, botanical, and zoological collections made in Kerguelen's Land and Rodriguez during the Transit of Venus Expedition 1874-5. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 168

Canu, F. 1919. Etude sur les ovicelles des Bryozoaires cyclostomes (2d contribution). Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 4 17: 345-347

Reuss, A.E. 1866. Die Foraminiferen, Anthozoen und Bryozoen des deutschen Septarienthones - Ein Beitrag zur Fauna der mitteloligozänen Tertiärschichten. Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien 25: 117-214

Taylor, P.D. 1993. Bryozoa. pp. 465-489 in Benton, M.J. (ed.). The Fossil Record 2. London & New York : Chapman & Hall 845 pp.

Waters, A.W. 1904. Bryozoa. Résultats du Voyage du S.V. 'Belgica', Zoologie. Expedition Antarctique Belge 4: 1-114

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