Maculosphaera Licari

Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN000270

Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:270

Author: G. R. Licari

Rank: genus

Reference: Licari, G. R. (1978): Biogeology of the late pre-Phanerozoic Beck Spring Dolomite of eastern California. – Journal of Paleontology 52(4): 767–792.

Page of description: 783

Type

Original diagnosis/description

Cells commonly elliptical, occasionally spheroidal, seldom angular, rarely polyhedral, typically solitary or commonly in pairs loosely associated with numerous other cells. Occasionally colonial, associated in uniserial chains, or closely appressed, forming mats of hundreds of cells within laminae. Cell surface coarsely to finely reticulate. Cell diameter ranging from 6 to 25 μm. Wall about 0.5 μm thick. Sheath not present around individual cells but questionably present around colonial aggregates. Most cells possess a single, dark, subcentrally or eccentrically located spot (rarely more than one) which ranges from 0.3 to 2.2 μm and averages about 1 μm in diameter. Reproduction is by binary fission in one or possibly two planes. Other reproduction unknown.

Etymology

Named for the prominent dark spot contained within spheroidal cells.