A rare double skeleton of the silicoflagellate Corbisema

摘要

Silicoflagellates are usually associated with simple skeletons made of a domal latticework of rod-shaped elements, known as the apical structure, which is attached to a polygonal basal ring. Silicoflagellate reproduction is poorly understood (Moestrup & Thomsen, 1990) but they are known to divide mitotically associated with the construction of a double skeleton. Such double skeletons connected at the abapical face of the basal ring are observed from Recent and fossil material. Double skeletons of. Dictyocha and Distephanus noted in Cenozoic sediments (Dumitria 1973, pl. 4. fig. 8; Boney, 1976) show basal rings positioned with their corners in close proximity. Ling & Takahashi (1985, pl. 1, fig. 5) and Takahashi et al. (2009, pl. 2, figs 3, 5) illustrate Distephanus with the spines of the two skeletons in exact alignment with one another.