Original paper
Revision of the family Helioporidae (Helioporacea, Anthozoa; Cretaceous – Extant)
Morales, Héctor Hernández; Löser, Hannes
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen Band 287 Heft 3 (2018), p. 351 - 363
published: Mar 1, 2018
ArtNo. ESP155028703005, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The octocoral family Helioporidae (order Helioporacea) is revised on the basis of its type genus. The family, well known for the extant 'Blue coral' Heliopora coerulea, encompasses colonial corals whose skeletons are made of large monocentric skeletal elements that form the wall and the coenosteum. Its projections into the corallites form a kind of septa. Along with the extant genus Heliopora Blainville, 1830, the family encompasses the Cretaceous genera Dactylacis Orbigny, 1849, Eomontipora Gregory, 1932, Parapolytremacis Alloiteau, 1957, Polytremacis Orbigny, 1849, Proheliopora Kusmicheva, 1975, Pseudopolytremacis Morycowa, 1971, and Selidolithus Alloiteau, 1957. All genera are reviewed on the basis of type material of their respective type species, as far as possible. The present revision suggests a smaller number of genera for the Cretaceous than previously thought. All genera are considered synonymous with Heliopora, with the exception of Pseudopolytremacis and its junior synonym Proheliopora. Heliopora ranges from the Hauterivian to the present and Pseudopolytremacis from Barremian to Santonian.
Keywords
cretaceous • corals • octocorals • recent