Atactoporella schucherti
Classification
Phylum: Bryozoa
Class: Stenolaemata
Order: Trepostomatida
Family: Mesotrypidae
Genus: Atactoporella
Species: Atactoporella schucherti (Ulrich, 1883)
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Taxonomic History (Nickles & Bassler, 1900)
Taxonomic History (Nickles & Bassler, 1900)
- 1883 Atactopora schucherti Ulrich, Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., VI, p. 251, pl. xii, 5-5b.
- 1895 Atactopora schucherti J.F. James, Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., XVIII, p. 80.
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Stratigraphic Occurrences
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Sequences (Formations)
Sequences (Formations)
- C5 Sequence (Whitewater, Waynesville)
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Identification in Hand Sample
- Zoarium Morphology: Parastitic/Encrusting; Irregularly expanding, usually less than 1 inch in diameter
- Zoecia: Apertures rounded, with thick interspaces; numerous acanthopores
- Mesozooids: Numerous, but difficult to see externally
- Monticules: Slightly raised, at intervals of 0.1 inches or more
- Maculae: Cells slightly larger than average
Atactoporella schucherti from the Liberty Formation of Brookville, Indiana (OUIP 1831)
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Holland (UGA Strat Lab, 2013)
Holland (UGA Strat Lab, 2013)
- Atactoporella is typically encrusting, but can also be ramose to massive. Zooecia are thin-walled and bear diaphragms and cystiphragms, which often form overlapping series. Mesozooids are large and numerous, almost isolating zooids and bearing numerous diaphragms. Styles very numerous, causing zooecial openings to be petaloid.
James (1895):
- Parasitic: 1/3 of a line thick.
Small “eminences” slightly raised; cell apertures rounded and with many indentations made by projections of large spines.
Walls thin; cells 1/100 inch in diameter.
Present and numerous, unequal in size.
Many horizontal, but the vesicular ones also developed and to about the same degree.
Ulrich (1883):
- Zoarium parasitically attached to shells and other foreign bodies, over which it forms thin irregular expansions, usually less than an inch in diameter, and rarely more than .03 of an inch in thickness. The surface generally exhibits at intervals of .1 inch or more, slightly raised eminences. When in a good state of preservation (Plate XII., fig. 5), the cellular structure is almost entirely obscured by the innumerable surface extensions of the large spiniform tubuli, in many of which the perforation at the apex is clearly shown. When worn, the cell apertures are rounded, about ten in .1 of an inch, with thick interspaces, occupied by the shallow calices of numerous interstitial cells, which in old examples are not readily detected.
- … in the size and prominence of the spiniform tubuli. Compared more critically with A. mundula (PI. XII., figs. 6 and 6a), we find the following differences. In that species the spiniform tubuli are considerably smaller, and less prominent, the intertubular spaces narrower, and, in consequence, the interstitial cells smaller, and less numerous, while the diaphragms in the interstitial tubes are about twice as numerous in a given space
- Named in honor of my esteemed friend, Mr. Charles Schuchert, who kindly gave me, among other interesting forms, a large and most beautifully preserved example of this species.
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