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Bryozoa
Manzonella fissurata (Busk, 1859)
Nomenclature
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Family: MicroporidaeGenus: Manzonella
- holotype: B.M.(N.H.) Palaeont. Dept. D6835
SUMMARY
Colonies are multiserial, forming extensive encrusting sheets. Early astogeny is unknown.
Autozooids are about 0.50-0.55 mm long by 0.28-0.36 mm wide, typically elongate rhomboidal in outline shape. A pair of pores, sometimes with raised rims, may be visible in the transverse vertical walls of the autozooids. The frontal wall is an extensive, slightly depressed, granular cryptocyst with a pair of long, curved opesiules occasionally broken into two shorter pairs of opesiules separated by a calcified bridge. The opesia is hemielliptical, about two times broader than long, the length approximately 0.10 mm, with a gently arched proximal edge ornamented by tubercles. Ovicells have not been observed.
Vicarious avicularia are developed at zooid row bifurcations and form one of the two daughter zooids. They are the same length or slightly shorter than autozooids but significantly narrower, measuring about 0.2 mm in width, and have a similarly granular cryptocyst. A narrow, trifoliate opesia that includes rounded opesiules in the proximolateral corners occupies more than half of the frontal surface. The rostrum is rounded.