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.