Novocrania turbinata (Poli, 1795)

Dulai, A., 2013, Sporadic Miocene brachiopods in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, the Netherlands): Records from the Mediterranean, the North Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean, Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica 30, pp. 15-51 : 32-33

Novocrania turbinata (Poli, 1795)

( Figs 37–40)

Material – Amberre (3 specimens).

Size (mm) –

Length 5.3 5.4 6.8

Width 5.9 6.8 8.2

Notes – Novocrania is a cosmopolitan Craniidae genus, known from the Eocene to the recent ( LEE & BRUNTON 1986, 2001). N. turbinata is a recent species from the NE Atlantic and the Mediterranean but it is known also from the Miocene of Italy ( LOGAN et al. 2004) and the Pliocene of Portugal ( KROH et al. 2008). It is the first record of this species from the Miocene of the Atlantic Ocean. ( DOLLFUS & DAUTZENBERG (1901) and later DE MORGAN (1915) mentioned another craniid species, Ancistrocrania abnormis and DE MORGAN (1915) described a new species, Crania bouryi from the French Miocene).

N. turbinata is very similar to N. anomala (Müller, 1776) and according to some earlier opinion N. turbinata is a junior synonym of the latter species (e.g. LOGAN 1979), or it is only a variety ( FISCHER & OEHLERT 1891) or a subspecies ( COOPER 1981) of N. anomala . However, on the basis of detailed morphological studies BRUNTON (1988) and later LOGAN & LONG (2001) confirmed its validity as separate species. These two species can be distinguished from each other by the muscle scars of the dorsal valves. The ventral valves of N. turbinata is well calcified, thick and massive, while in N. anomala is thin, flat and delicate ( LOGAN & LONG 2001).

KROH et al. (2008) described this species from the Early Pliocene of the Azores ( Portugal) and their specimens are especially similar to the studied French Miocene material ( KROH et al. 2008: fig. 2). The only difference is that mantle canals cannot be seen on the anterior half of the French valves. According to KROH et al. ’s (2008) interpretation N. turbinata is a thermophilic species that disappeared locally due to the Late-Pliocene–Pleistocene climatic deterioration.

Regarding the Miocene Craniidae species from the Central Paratethys, Ancistrocrania abnormis (Defrance in Hoenighaus, 1828) has different brachial protractor muscle scars and belongs to another genus ( POPIEL-BARCZYK & BARCZYK 1990; BITNER 1990; BITNER & DULAI 2004). “ Crania ” badensis described by MICHALIK & ZÁGORŠEK (1986) shows basically similar pattern of muscle scars, however, the size of this species is significantly larger (8.5–17.4 mm).