A new Middle Devonian heterocoral from Spain

Abstract

Most of the heterocorals described up to now from strata older than Famennian are of doubtful affinities. Numerous speci− mens of the new genus and new species here described were collected during a sedimentological study of the Santa Lucía Formation in La Pola de Gordon (León province,Cantabrian Mountains,NW Spain). Stellaphyllia luciensis gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by cylindrical coralla,with a diameter of less than 2 mm and more than 2 cm long,having stellate to more or less rounded outer profile. Four to six septa,less frequently seven,are cojoined axially by a short oblique septum. The few tabulae present are steeply arched. The microstructure of the septa and interseptal elements shows thin elongate microlamellae parallel to a median plate which is granular in appearance. The new genus dated to the lower Eifelian age could be important in understanding the early phylogeny and origin of the order Heterocorallia.