Genus SEPTOPORA Prout, 1859

Type species. Septopora cesteriensis Prout, 1859, by original designation. Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous); North America .

Diagnosis. Reticulate colonies consisting of moderately thick branches and broad, often curved dissepiments. New branches originate by bifurcation or fusion of pinnae. Fenestrules irregularly shaped. Autozooecia arranged in two rows on branches and pinnae, rectangular to pentagonal in mid-tangential section. Hemisepta absent. Keel broad, low, carrying a single row of nodes. Cyclozooecia spaced irregularly through the colony (modified after Morozova, 2001 and McKinney, 2002).

Remarks. Septopora Prout, 1859, differs from the similar genus Synocladiella Lisitsyn in Lisitsyn and Ernst, 2004 in having two rows of autozooecia on branches instead of 6–8 in Synocladiella . Septopora differs from Synocladia King, 1949 in having two rows of autozooecia on branches instead of 3- 5 in Synocladia, as well as in presence of cyclozooecia.

Occurrence. Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) to Upper Permian; North America, Europe, Asia.