A revision of the Zoantharia Rugosa in the light of their minute skeletal structures

Abstract

In this communication an attempt is made to describe the minute structures of the rugose coral skeleton and to revise the classification of the Zoantharia on that basis. The paper falls into three main sections. In the first, the various structures observed in the skeleton are described and suggestions made concerning the relationships between the soft and hard parts. The conclusions arrived at are based on the investigation of a large number of thin sections in various museums and other geological institutions in Great Britain and on my own material collected in China. The second part comprises an analysis of these features, an attempted evaluation of their systematic significance, and a résumé of the evolutionary history of the rugose corals. This résumé is mainly based on a direct study of accessible material and partly on reinterpretation of the literature in the light of new observations. The third part deals with classification and the diagnoses of the suborders, families, subfamilies and genera. For each genus recognized, the genotype is cited and a diagnosis given, together with geological range and, if any, subgenera and synonyms. Only those references not contained in theIndex of Palaeozoic Coral Generaare listed in the bibliography.