Pantanellium squinaboli

Pantanellium squinaboli (Tan, 1927) Figs. 7j, l-n1 1927 Stylosphaera squinaboli Tan, p. 35, pl. 6, figs. 9a-d. 1981 Sphaerostylus lanceola (Parona, 1890) group – Schaaf, p. 438, pl. 7, fig. 6; pl. 16, figs. 5-a-b. 1981 Sphaerostylus lanceola (Parona) – Kanie et al., pl. 1, fig. 6. 1994 Pantanellium squinaboli (Tan) – Jud, p. 90, pl. 15, figs. 10-12. 1995 Pantanellium squinaboli (Tan) part. – Baumgartner et al., p. 372, pl. 5067, figs. 1, 2, 4, not 3, 5-7. 1997b Pantanellium corriganensis Pessagno, p. 33, pl. 3, figs. 5, 6. 2014 Pantanellium squinaboli Tan – Robertson et al., fig. 10(B), 2. 2017 Pantanellium squinaboli Tan – Xu & Luo, figs. 3 P, Q. Dimensions. Diameter 122-135µm, length without spines 130-150 µm, length of spines 75-100 µm. Remarks. What is very characteristic of this species in the S’Ozzastru fauna, besides its general morphology with wide pores, nodes at vertices and a very thick cortical shell, is the ornamentation of the internal faces of pores, which have numerous tiny pustules disposed in radial and circular rows (Figs. 7m 1, 7n 1). These pustules are nothing else than remains of a dense spongy meshwork that infilled the pore cavities and the surface of the cortical shell. Such a spongy meshwork is common in an unpublished pantanellid species occurring in the very well-preserved lower Tithonian radiolarian fauna of the sample Mo 22 from the Solnhofen area partly published by Zügel (1997), Dumitrică & Zügel (1998, 2003, 2008) and Dumitrică (2013a, 2013b). In the Solnhofen species, this spongy meshwork, when very well preserved, is so thick that the species determination is almost impossible. Range and occurrence. Tithonian to late Barremian.