Observations on some Actinoporellas (Chlorophyta, Polyphysaceae). Revision of the Jacques Emberger Collection. Part 1

Abstract

On the occasion of the inventory of the J. Emberger Collection, specimens from the "Lower Cretaceous" (Valanginian and Hauterivian) of Algeria, which are referable to the genus Actinoporella (Gumbel in Alth) and which were earlier identified to its type-species A. podolica (Alth) by Conrad et al., are re-examined. They correspond to two discrete species, one of which could be a junior synonym of A. podolica, a synonymy that remains pending because it would require a new sampling at the original locality in western Ukraine some 140 years after the original specimens, now lost, were collected. Regarding their age ascription, they are Tithonian and/or Berriasian in age, i.e., latest Jurassic (sensu Oppel) in age, not earliest Cretaceous. In addition to these two Actinoporellas, a third discrete species, initially described as Clypeina nigra (Conrad & Peybernes), but later referred to the genus Actinoporella, is revised. New data justify its re-ascription to the genus Bakalovaella Bucur. Finally, it is now confirmed that both the Polyphysaceae and the modern Dasycladaceae derive from the Diploporaceae either directly or indirectly through the ancestral Dasycladaceae.