Data from: The oldest erect cheilostome bryozoan: Jablonskipora gen. nov. from the upper Albian of south-west England

Although dominant at the present day, the bryozoan order Cheilostomata did not appear until the Late Jurassic. For over 55 million years after their first appearance, cheilostomes remained low in diversity and disparity, exclusively encrusting and scant in the fossil record. During the late Albian, however, cheilostomes began an explosive diversification coinciding with the appearance of several key novelties. In this paper, we describe a new monospecific cheilostome genus, Jablonskipora gen. nov. (type species Jablonskipora kidwellae gen. et sp. nov.), of importance as the oldest known cheilostome with erect growth. Jablonskipora kidwellae is a malacostegine cheilostome characterized by rigidly erect colonies with cylindrical, bifurcating branches and is moderately common in sedimentary rocks of late Albian age in south-west England. Autozooids are dimorphic, with long tubular autozooids in the axial endozone covered by multiple layers of short, stacked, box-shaped autozooids in the surrounding exozone. It is assigned to Chiplonkarinidae, a family now containing five genera, a tabular key for the discrimination of which is provided. The morphology of Jablonskipora and the early evolution of erect growth in cheilostomes are discussed.

尽管苔藓虫（bryozoan）唇口目（Cheilostomata）在现今占据主导地位，但它们直至晚侏罗世才首次出现。在其首次出现后的5500余万年里，唇口目类群的多样性与形态分异度始终处于较低水平，仅以附生生长方式存在，且化石记录极为稀少。然而在阿尔布阶晚期，唇口目类群迎来了爆发式辐射演化，这一过程与多项关键创新性状的出现同步发生。本文记述了一个全新的单型唇口目属——Jablonskipora gen. nov.（模式种为Jablonskipora kidwellae gen. et sp. nov.），该属作为目前已知最早具有直立生长方式的唇口目类群，具有重要研究价值。Jablonskipora kidwellae属于软壁亚目（malacostegine）唇口虫类，其特征为具坚硬直立的群体，群体带有圆柱形分叉分枝；该物种在英格兰西南部的阿尔布阶晚期沉积岩中较为常见。其个员（Autozooids）呈现二态性：轴部内带分布有细长管状个员，外围外带则被多层堆叠的短盒状个员所覆盖。该属被归入奇普隆卡虫科（Chiplonkarinidae），该科目前共包含5个属，文中附有用于区分这些属的表格式检索表。本文还讨论了Jablonskipora的形态特征，以及唇口目类群直立生长方式的早期演化历程。