A REVISION OF REDUVIASPORONITES WILSON 1962: DESCRIPTION, ILLUSTRATION, COMPARISON AND BIOLOGICAL AFFINITIES

Abstract

Abstract Geochemical analyses of specimens of Reduviasporonites suggests that it is most likely of algal, rather than fungal origin. As a probable alga, Reduviasporonites is unlikely to be integral to the process of mass extinction occurring at or near the Permian‐Triassic boundary, as suggested by Visscher and other workers because it cannot have acted as a saprophytic metaboliser of dead vegetation resulting from that event. Moreover, it ranges outside the postulated time of mass extinction by at least 10 million years. Optical and electron microscopy of topotype material confirms that Reduviasporonites Wilson 1962 is the senior synonym of Chordecystia Foster 1979, and Tympanicysta Balme 1980. Moreover the type species of the last two genera, assigned in 1999 to Reduviasporonites by Elsik as R. chalastus (Foster) and R. stoschianus (Balme), are conspecific. The type species, R. catenulatus Wilson 1962, differs from R. chalastus in that its constituent cells are significantly smaller, more rounded, and h...