Family GIGANTOPORIDAE Bassler, 1935

Museums

Regional Maps

• Gigantoporidae Bassler, R.S. 1935. Bryozoa. Generum et Genotyporum. Index et Bibliographica. pp. 1-229 in Quenstedt, W. (ed.). Fossilium Catalogus I. Animalia. s'Gravenhage : W.Junk. [32].

Introduction

The family Gigantoporidae was introduced by Bassler (1935) for Gigantopora Ridley (1881). Both Cook (1985) and Gordon (1984) have reviewed the problems in defining and assigning genera such as Pachycleithonia, Cosciniopsis, and Gigantopora among the schizoporellid families; in fact Gordon suggested that the Gigantoporidae 'might not be worthy of full familial status'. Following Cook (1985), the genera Gigantopora and Cosciniopsis are referred to the family here.

Gigantopora is characterised by its large autozooids, with porous frontal shields and sinuate orifices. Paired avicularia flank the orifice, on either side of a raised peristome, which has a spiramen proximally. The ovicells are large and hyperstomial, with a porous frontal. G. pupa (Jullien) has recently been reported for the first time from the Great Barrier Reef, although it was known from the Torres Straits (Hayward & Ryland, 1995). The species referred to Gigantopora biturrita (Hincks) by both Brown (1952) and Bock (1982) is almost certainly Calyptotheca variolosa (MacGillivray) from Victoria. Several species were present in the Tertiary of Victoria (MacGillivray 1895), but only G. pupa and C. lonchaea are currently known from Australian waters.

Species of Cosciniopsis are usually brilliantly pigmented. C. lonchaea is reddish-brown, with an oval orifice and a small oral avicularium. It has been reported from Torres Strait and the Great Barrier Reef (Ryland & Hayward, 1992).

Diagnosis

Colony encrusting, moderately calcified, zooids with lepralioid frontal shield with numerous pseudopores, often brilliantly pigmented. Avicularia oral, often paired, flanking a raised peristome with median proximal spiramen. Ovicells large and hyperstomial, with a porous frontal.

General References

Bassler, R.S. 1935. Bryozoa. Generum et Genotyporum. Index et Bibliographica. pp. 1-229 in Quenstedt, W. (ed.). Fossilium Catalogus I. Animalia. s'Gravenhage : W.Junk.

Bock, P.E. 1982. Bryozoans (Phylum Bryozoa). pp. 319-394 in Shepherd, S.A. & Thomas, I.M. (eds). Marine Invertebrates of Southern Australia. Handbook of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia Adelaide : Government Printer Part 1 491 pp.

Brown, D.A. 1952. The Tertiary cheilostomatous Polyzoa of New Zealand. London : Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) 405 pp.

Cook, P.L. 1985. Bryozoa from Ghana. A preliminary survey.Bryozoa from Ghana. A preliminary survey. Annales du Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale. Série in Octavo. Sciences Zoologiques 238: 1-315

Gordon, D.P. 1984. The marine fauna of New Zealand: Bryozoa: Gymnolaemata from the Kermadec Ridge. New Zealand Oceanographic Institute Memoir 91: 1-198

Hayward, P.J. & Ryland, J.S. 1995. Bryozoa from Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef. 2. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 38(2): 533-573

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

Ridley, S.O. 1881. Account of the Zoological collections... HMS 'Alert' ... Part 5, Polyzoa. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1881: 44-61

Ryland, J.S. & Hayward, P.J. 1992. Bryozoa from Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 32(1): 223-301

History of changes