Eridotrypa briareus

Classification
Phylum: Bryozoa
Class: Stenolaemata
Order: Trepostomatida
Genus: Eridotrypa
Species: Eridotrypa briareus (Nicholson, 1875)

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History: (Nickles & Bassler, 1900)

  • 1875 Chaetetes briareus Nicholson, Pal. Ohio, II, p. 202, pl. xxi, 13-13b.
  • 1881 Monticulipora (Monotrypa) briareus Nicholson, Genus Monticulipora p. 198, pl. ii, 5-5c.
  • 1882 Monotrypella briarea Ulrich, Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat Hist., V, pp. 248, 256.
  • 1888 Monticulipora briarea James and James, Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., X, p. 172.
  • 1894 Monticulipora briarea J.F. James, Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., XVI, p. 191.
  • Trenton: Covington, Kentucky; Maury County, Tennessee.

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Stratigraphic Occurrences

E.briareus_strat

Geographic Occurrences

Map point data provided by iDigBio.
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Sequences (Formations)

  • C1 Sequence (Cynthiana)

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Identification in Hand Sample

  • Zoarium Morphology: Ramose and slender; diameter: 3-10mm
  • Zooecia: Oval, oblique; thick-walled with thick interspaces; styles numerous, small; more oval/oblique in the more slender zooaria
  • Mesozooids: Few
  • Monticules: Smooth surface

Eridotrypa briareus from the Fairview Formation of Cleves, Ohio (OUIP 331)

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McFarlan (1931):

  • Forms smooth cylindrical branches with stems 3-10 mm in diameter with a rounded or pointed base. Zooecia rather thick-walled, oblique, with oval apertures in the more slender zooaria (7 in 2mm). Acanthopores absent, mesopores few.

Nicholson (1875)

  • Corallum free (?), commencing in a pointed base which does not show any indication of having been at any time attached to any foreign body. Above the base, the corallum expands so as to form an inverted and somewhat compressed cone. From the top of this cone proceed in one specimen four cylindrical branches, which almost immediately divide each into two branches, thus giving rise to eight vertical, slender stems, which have a diameter of two lines each. The further course and final termination of these branches is not shown, as the specimen is unfortunately broken at this point. In another specimen, the basal cone gives off only two branches from its summit. These bifurcate and the branches thus produced bifurcate again, two of the tertiary branches inosculating directly above the basal cone. In this specimen, also, the branches are all broken just above their origin, and their terminations thus remain unknown. Surface smooth, destitute of tubercles, but showing here and there small and irregular groups of corallites, which are very slightly larger than the average. Corallites thick-walled, about eight or ten in the space of one line, entirely without intermediate minute tubuli. Calices oval or circular.
  • I have only seen two specimens of this interesting coral, both broken and imperfect as regards the terminations of the branches. In the best of these specimens the entire height, so far as preserved, is one inch and a half, of which the basal cone occupies nine lines. The width at the point where the branches come off is nine lines, and the thickness of the corallum at the same point is five lines.
  • This singular form is so remarkable in its shape and mode of growth that I have no hesitation in separating it from all previously recorded species. At the same time its minute characters show no special peculiarity by which a mere fragment could be distinguished from C. pulchellus or C. Fletcheri, E. and H., if we except the fact that the corallites have walls of more than usual thickness when well preserved, whilst there is an entire absence of the minute intercalated tubuli so common in the above-mentioned species. The corallum of C. briareus, judging from its sharply pointed and slightly curved base, would appear to have been free, but we have no means of settling this point with absolute certainty.

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