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Language Spanish journal of palaeontology. 2025. Vol. 40, no. 2
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- Francis Tourneur: between corals and marble(2025-12-05) Denayer, Julien; Fernández-Martínez, Esperanza; Plusquellec, YvesFrancis Tourneur was born the 27th of February 1959 in Namur, Belgium and grew up in the town of Tamines in the Sambre valley. As he used to tell, he was raised by his grandmother who taught him to walk, to speak, to eat… and to drink! The Sambre valley was a place of stones, mines and quarries, which might explain his interest in geology. He came to the sciences at the university, starting his degree in sciences at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix de Namur, then at the Université Catholique de Louvain where he graduated in Sciences géologiques et minéralogiques in 1981. His first scientific work for his master thesis was somewhat a combination of what his scientific career would then be: fossils and stratigraphy in Frasnian red marble bioherms.
- The significance of corallite spacing in heliolitid corals(2025-10-13) Król, Jan J.Heliolitids (Heliolitina, Tabulata) are one of the few groups of Paleozoic corals exhibiting a plocoid form of the corallum, indicative of a relatively high level of colony integration. The difference in the spacing of individual corallites within their plocoid colonies (measured in corallites per cm2) has been broadly used as one of the main characteristics for distinguishing between heliolitid taxa. In the present study, corallite spacing was analysed in three coral species: Propora tubulata and Heliolites spongodes from the Silurian of Gotland, and H. porosus from the Devonian of Morocco. This study aims to offer a new perspective on the usefulness of corallite spacing in heliolitids as a characteristic for the purpose of taxonomic, palaeoecological, and evolutionary analyses. Additionally, a new measure of this trait, corallites per (10d)2, is proposed, in order to facilitate more direct comparisons of corallite spacing despite intra- and interspecific differences. Observations on P. tubulata and H. porosus show that their corallite spacing was adaptable. The adaptability of offset insertion in heliolitids was likely advantageous and could be the reason behind the evolutionary convergence between them and the modern octocoral Heliopora coerulea, which develops a very similar colony structure.
- A symbiosis between bryozoans and the tabulate coral Cladochonus in the Devonian(2025-10-17) Ernst, Andrej; May, AndreasSymbiotic (mutualistic) relationships are hypothesized for species of the tabulate coral genus Cladochonus McCoy, 1847 associated with trepostome and cryptostome bryozoans in the Devonian. The species Cladochonus isaacmariai n. sp. from the Birdsong Shale (Lower Devonian, middle Lochkovian) of Tennessee, USA, was an obligatory symbiont of the trepostome bryozoan Nakremella symbiotica n. gen. n. sp. Cladochonus sp. A and Cladochonus sp. B from the Givetian (Middle Devonian) of Sauerland, Germany, are intergrown with the cryptostome species Intrapora variabilis Ernst, 2008. This interrelation is interpreted to be obligatory for the coral and facultative for the bryozoan. The coral symbionts benefitted from the bryozoans due to the enhanced mechanical stabilisation and enhanced feeding, while the bryozoans benefitted from the provision of a substrate, access to the higher tiering (arborescent growth), and receiving protection from the corals.
- Intergrowth of chaetetids, Girvanella and Donezella in Pennsylvanian mounds in the Valdeteja Formation, NW Spain(2025-11-27) Rodríguez-Castro, Isabel; Rodríguez, SergioMultiple types of mounds have been described in the Pennsylvanian of the Cantabrian Mountains. In many of them the main component is Donezella Maslov, 1929. This organism was first described as an alga, but its occurrence in dysphotic and aphotic facies led to its inclusion in the order Algospongia, which includes organisms of doubtful affinity. Most of the mounds with Donezella from the Cantabrian Mountains previously described in the San Emiliano, Valdeteja and Picos de Europa formations have been identified in ramp or slope facies in dysphotic or aphotic conditions, confirming that it was not an alga. However, mounds 1 to 2 metres thick and 3 to 5 metres in diameter have been located in outcrops near the town of Truébano. The main component is Donezella, but unlike other occurrences, these mounds also contain chaetetids and Girvanella as important components. The latter is considered to be a cyanobacteria and clearly indicative of shallow waters in the photic zone. Chaetetids are typical reef builders and frequent on Devonian and Carboniferous shallow platforms. In the studied mounds, chaetetids occur in association with Donezella, Girvanella, Masloviporidium, Claracrusta and other components, proving that these mounds developed in the photic zone, unlike those when the main component is Donezella.
- The oldest Ordovician rugose and tabulate corals from the Avalonian Brabant Massif (Belgium)(2025-11-28) Mottequin, Bernard; Poty, EdouardThe oldest Ordovician rugose and tabulate corals recognised in the Brabant Massif (Belgium, Avalonia) have been systematically revised for the first time since they were first described in the 1870s. They are from three localities (Fauquez, Grand-Manil, Rebecq-Rognon) situated on the southern margin of this Caledonian massif and exposing the siliciclastic Huet Formation (early Katian). Specimens are decalcified and represented by external natural moulds precluding their study in thin section, as usually done, and not allowing precise and confident identifications. The numerous solitary rugose corals are ascribed to the lambelasmatid genus Rectigrewingkia, and the tabulate corals are doubtfully assigned to the coccoseridid genera Coccoseris and Acidolites. The corals from the Huet Formation form a poorly diverse association as is also the case of those reported in the Condroz Inlier, within the Bois de Presles Member (Fosses Formation) of middle to late Katian age (excluding those of the Cocriamont conglomerate).
- The giant bryozoan genus Tabulipora from the Permian of North-Western Wrgentina: a new component of the bryozoan Andean Province(2025-10-21) Carrera, Marcelo G.; Sterren, Andrea F.; Cisterna, Gabriela A.; Benedetto, Juan L.Tabulipora Young, 1883 is one of the most characteristic Carboniferous–Permian bryozoan genera recorded worldwide. Numerous species of this genus show wide variety of morphology and size. However, several species are considered among the largest bryozoan forms, and this includes the Argentinean Tabulipora described in this contribution. The specimens are ramose forms reaching 15cm in maximum zoarial length and 2 cm in branch diameter. The fossil material comes from the Arizaro Formation, Puna region (Salta province) in north-western Argentina. This unit is separated in three members developed in a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic marine shelf palaeoenvironment. The record of abundant bryozoan specimens and a varied fauna of invertebrates including brachiopods, bivalves, crinoids, gastropods, ostracods, and benthic foraminifers are comparable to nearby basins in northern Chile (Cerro El Árbol, Cerros de Cuevitas and Juan de Morales formations), Bolivia and Peru (Copacabana Formation). All these basins have been included in the Andean bryozoan province which characterises an intermediate climatic latitudinal gradient from the equatorial to subtropical areas in Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia to temperate conditions in northern Chile and Argentina. This gradient can be followed southward in southern Gondwana with the development of typical high-latitude bryozoan associations. The presence of giant taxa, such as Tabulipora, suggests a latitudinal effect on the size of these faunas.
- A surprisingly diverse coral fauna from the Emsian (Lower Devonian) of the Mouthoumet massif, SW France and reassessment of the age and affinity of the Pech Nègre Limestone(2025-12-01) Denayer, Julien; Aretz, MarkusThe limestone of the Pech Nègre locality represents one of the rare occurrences of fossiliferous shallow-water carbonate facies in an intermediate position between the Montagne Noire and the Pyrenees. Situated in the Mouthoumet Massif (SW France) near Auriac, this limestone yields a surprisingly diverse coral fauna dominated by tabulate corals (Favosites, Heliolites, Striatopora, Syringocystis, Remesia) and solitary rugose corals. Among the latter two species are new: Macgeea tourneuri and Grypophyllum aubertae. Besides widely distributed rugose corals such as Calceola, Tryplasma and Cystiplasma, endemic genera and species that were yet described only from the Emsian Izarne Formation near Cabrières in the Montagne Noire occur: the solitary Frechocystis pertinax and the colonial Platysmatophyllum halleri and Izarneophyllum barroisi. However, the most abundant species of the Pech Nègre locality is a solitary cylindrical rugose coral with a limited increase that is attributed to Breviphrentis angustitabulata, based on the comparison of type material from the Cantabrian Mountains. In the latter locality, it was usually determined as Synaptophyllum. Revision of topotypic material of both genera demonstrates that the Spanish material is not Synaptophyllum, which has an important consequence for palaeobiogeographic hypotheses and reconstructions. The age of the Pech Nègre coral fauna is definitely upper Emsian as it is mostly identical to that of the well-dated Izarne Formation of Montagne Noire, and hence much older than the previously attributed Visean (Carboniferous) age.
- Palaeoecology and development of upper Eifelian (Middle Devonian) bioherms of southern Belgium(2025-12-03) Alvarez-Georges, Paul; Denayer, JulienThe Tienne Sainte-Anne bioherms are small lens-like reefs developed in the upper part of the Eifelian along the southern margin of the Dinant Synclinorium in southern Belgium. They have a typical development pattern, starting on crinoidal gravel stabilised by lamellar stromatoporoids. This first stage provides a firm ground for the development of larger and thicker stromatoporoids that suggest growth in a shallow, turbulent and clear-water environment. A progressive deepening is recorded in the development of finer-grained sediment, culminating in what could be interpreted as a ‘micritic core’ with cavities and a peculiar fauna. The facies occupying most of the volume of the reefs is made of stromatoporoid framestone and boundstone passing laterally to accumulations of stromatoporoid, coral and crinoid debris. The top of the reef is dominated by massive stromatoporoids, together with large colonies of Heliolites and Cyathophyllum, which indicate shallow, agitated waters. With this last facies is associated the most diverse faunal assemblage of the reef. The shallowing-upwards trend recorded in the facies culminated with the emersion of the top of the bioherm, triggering its demise. The modest size and limited ecological development of the reefs are interpreted as a consequence of the emersion of the platform.
- Editorial: Tribute to Francis Tourneur(2025-12-05) Denayre, Julien; Fernández-Martínez, EsperanzaThis special volume of the Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, dedicated to Professor Francis Tourneur, brings together a series of contributions focused on tabulate and rugose corals, as well as coral palaeoecology—domains to which Francis devoted much of his distinguished and productive scientific career. As highlighted in the opening article, which presents a detailed biographical overview, his research encompassed an impressive breadth of palaeontological subjects. Nevertheless, throughout this wide-ranging scholarly trajectory, corals remained the consistent and unifying thread that shaped his scientific legacy.
