Lunostoma

Lunostoma
Temporal range: Middle Devonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Bryozoa
Class: Gymnolaemata
Order: Cryptostomata
Suborder: Rhabdomesina
Family: Rhomboporidae
Genus: Lunostoma
Ernst et al., 2012

Lunostoma is an extinct genus of bryozoans which existed during the middle Devonian of what is now Germany, precisely from the Gerolstein syncline. It was described by Andrej Ernst, Paul D. Taylor, Jan Bohatý and Patrick N. Wyse Jackson in 2012, and the type species is L. pulchra.[1]

Morphology

Lunostoma was a small animal, branches being about 1.3 mm wide.[1] It is unique among Rhabdomesina bryozoans in featuring "scutes", crescent-shaped structures on the proximal side of apertures.[1] The function of these structures, which resemble the lunaria of cystoporate bryozoans, is unclear, and it is possibly an example of convergent evolution. [1] Otherwise it is similar to Saffordotaxis.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Andrej Ernst, Paul D. Taylor, Jan Bohatý and Patrick N. Wyse Jackson (2012). "Homeomorphy in Lunostoma, a new Middle Devonian cryptostome bryozoan". Paläontologische Zeitschrift. in press. doi:10.1007/s12542-011-0127-8.
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