Catalog - Woodringina kelleri

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Other pages this level: W. claytonensis, W. hornerstownensis, W. kelleri

Woodringina kelleri

Citation: Woodringina kelleri MacLeod 1993

Type specimens: Plate IV, 1-3; Holotype, USNM 465044. Paratypes, USNM 465045.

Type sample (& lithostrat): ODP Site 577A, section 12-2, interval 44-46 cm.

Type age (chronostrat): Early Danian

Diagnosis: Narrow, rapidly flaring test composed of five to seven chambers. Adult chambers exhibit distinct lateral compression. Aperture, large and formed into an elongate arch that is surrounded by a well-developedbut discontinuous apertural rim.

Description: Test biserial throughout with an initial triserial chamber arrangement and a twisted axis of seriation. Proloculus appears slightly smaller than deuteroconch. Prolocular surface texture densely pustulose with moderately-spaced, small pores. Proloculus set off from neanic chambers by deep, obliquely-oriented sutures. Neanic and adult chambers subspherical to laterally compressed. Overall test rapidly flaring in plan profile but subparallel in apertural view with a distinctly lobate periphery. Surface texture densely pustulose with small pores scattered evenly over the surface at a moderate density. Sutures uniformly deep and straight with neanic sutures tending toward the oblique condition while sutures between adult chambers are horizontal. Test cross-sections are predominately circular through the proloculus and neanic chambers but elliptical through the adult chambers. Rate of adult chamber size increase slightly lower than that exhibited by the neanic chambers. The distinctive aperture of this species is asymmetrically placed with respect to the axis of seriality and forms a relatively large elongate arch that extends approximately 50% of the way up the ultimate chamber face in apertural view. This aperture is surrounded by a well-developed apertural rim that is discontinuous on the side of the aperture closest to the axis of seriality.

W. kelleri n. sp. is named in honor of Gerta Keller (Princeton University) in recognition of her many contributions to the study of uppermost Cretaceous and earliest Tertiary planktic foraminiferal faunas.

1991, Woodringina claytonensis ( Loeblich and Tappan). D'Hondt, plate 2, fig. 4

Remarks: W. kelleri n. sp. differs from W. claytonensis Loeblich and Tappan by its laterally compressed adult chambers, and most especially by its large, elongate aperture that is surrounded by a well developed, discontinuous apertural rim. Although Keller (1989a) has detected the presence of pore cones in W. hornerstownensis Olsson, D'Hondt ( 1991 ) identified this same specimen as W. claytonensis (compare Keller, 1989a, fig. 3, nos. 5 and 6 to D'Hondt, 1991, plate 1, figs. 11 and 12). Since D'Hondt's ( 1991 ) specimen is oriented in such a way as to obscure the aperture, it is impossible to determine its true identity from this photomicrograph. However, the strongly subparallel nature of the neanic and adult chamber profile, along with D'Hondt's obvious misidentification of several other W. hornerstownensis specimens as W. claytonensis (compare D'Hondt, 1991, plate 1, fig. 8 and plate 2, fig. 12 to Loeblich and Tappan, 1957, text-fig. 1a-1d) suggests that Keller's original identification is correct. No evidence for pore cones was found on any of the W. kelleri n. sp. specimens examined for this study. This may change though as better preserved material becomes available. W. kelleri n. sp. can be distinguished from W. hornerstownensis by the rapidly flaring nature of its test, smaller number of neanic and adult chamber series, lack of dorso-ventral adult chamber compression, and the characteristically narrower relative width of its aperture

Stratigraphic range: The earliest recorded stratigraphic occurrence of W. kelleri n. sp. is from Biozone P0 at Brazos River, Texas, while at E1 Kef, Tunisia this species appears to extend at least to the boundary between Biozones P 1b and P 1c.

Occurrence: W. kelleri n. sp. is a cosmopolitan species that has been found in the early Danian of the following sections and deep-sea cores: El Kef (Tunisia), Brazos River, Texas (section CM4 and Brazos Core), DSDP Site 577 (western Pacific), and ODP Site 690C (Maude Rise, Weddell Sea).

References:

MacLeod, N. (1993). The Maastrichtian-Danian Radiation of Triserial and Biserial Planktic Foraminifera: Testing Phylogenetic and Adaptational Hypotheses in the (Micro)Fossil Record. Marine Micropaleontology. 21: 47-100. gs

CATALOG OF ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS: Woodringina kelleri MacLeod 1993

Woodringina kelleri

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