Family CYTIDIDAE D'Orbigny, 1854

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Introduction

Founded by d'Orbigny (1854) on European Cretaceous fossil material, this family includes a large number of genera from Jurassic and Cretaceous horizons and a very few Recent genera which are perhaps only remotely related to them. The unifying feature is a pedunculate, cupped colony form with bundles of zooids branching from the rim.

Recent species ascribed to Supercytis d'Orbigny (1854) and Hypocytis Ortmann (1890) have a narrow encrusting base below a short, cylindrical stem. The upper portion of the colony is deeply cupped, with autozooids in narrow bundles, or fascicles, projecting from its rim. The brood chamber is situated basal to the cup, above the peduncle.

Fasciculipora digitata Busk (1875), from Cape Capricorn, Queensland, was placed later by Busk (1886) in synonymy with the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) European Supercytis digitata d'Orbigny (1854). Busk appears to be the first author to accord a Recent distribution to Supercytis digitata. Waters (1884) recorded the species from the Tertiary of South Australia (River Murray Cliffs), but Harmer (1915) referred Waters's record to a new species Supercytis watersi (as Cytisidae). MacGillivray (1895) has also expressed doubts about Waters's record. The taxonomy of all Recent species presently assigned to this family is unsatisfactory and in need of review. Rare specimens with a similar colony form have been collected from Bass Strait, but are undescribed. The species Flosculipora pygmaea also is pedunculate, but the gonozooid is central on the upper surface. It has been assigned to the Disporellidae (Gordon & Taylor 2001).

Diagnosis

Colony well calcified, erect, cup-shaped, arising from an encrusting base. Stem short and cylindrical supporting a cup. Autozooids in bundles (fascicles), with marginal orifices projecting from the edge of the cup. Brood chamber on the pedunculate (lower) face.

General References

Busk, G. 1875. Catalogue of Marine Polyzoa in the collection of the British Museum. Part 3. London : Trustees of the British Museum pp. 1-39.

Busk, G. 1886. Polyzoa (Part II). Cyclostomata, Ctenostomata, and Pedicellinea. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger 1873–1876, Zoology 17: viii, 47

D'Orbigny, A. 1854. Paléontologie Française, Terrains Crétacés. Paris : Victor Masson Vol. V, Bryozoaires 985-1192 pp.

Gordon, D.P., & Taylor, P.D. 2001. New Zealand Recent Densiporidae and Lichenoporidae (Bryozoa: Cyclostomata). Species Diversity 6: 243-290

Harmer, S.F. 1915. The Polyzoa of the Siboga Expedition. Part 1. Entoprocta, Ctenostomata and Cyclostomata. Siboga-Expéditie Report 28A: 1-180

Macgillivray, P.H. 1895. A monograph of the Tertiary Polyzoa of Victoria. Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria ns 4: 1-166

Ortmann, A. 1890. Die Japanische Bryozoenfauna. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 54: 1-74

Waters, A.W. 1884. On fossil Cyclostomatous Bryozoa from Australia. Quarterly. Journal of the Geological Society of London 40: 674-697

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