Watznaueria moshkovitzii

Watznaueria moshkovitzii Varol & Bowman 2019

Very large species of Watznaueria (>13.0 μm) characterised by a closed central area. The coccolith is subcircular to broadly elliptical, with a distinctly elliptical central area whose width is commonly narrower than that of the pelaga (including the tube cycles and shields).

The entire coccolith is strongly birefringent, exhibiting first-order yellow to red interference colours under cross-polarised light.

Watznaueria moshkovitzii is readily distinguished from all other species of Watznaueria by its exceptionally large size.
Bukry (1973) introduced Watznaueria manivitiae as a replacement name for Coccolithus deflandrei Manivit (1966), because Watznaueria deflandrei (Noël, 1965) Reinhardt (1971) had already been established in Watznaueria. Large circular specimens originally assigned to Coccolithus deflandrei are generally referred to as Cyclagelosphaera deflandrei (Manivit, 1966) Roth (1973). Consequently, Watznaueria manivitiae appears to be superfluous, as it is based on the same type as Coccolithus deflandrei and therefore does not represent a distinct taxonomic entity.

Bukry, D. 1973f. Phytoplankton stratigraphy, Central Pacific Ocean, Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 17. Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. 17: 871-889.

Manivit, H. 1966. Sur quelques coccolithes nouveaux du Néocomien. Compte Rendu Sommaire des Séances de la Société Géologique de France. 7: 267-268.

Noël, D. 1965. Sur les Coccolithes du Jurassique Européen et d'Afrique du Nord. Essai de classification des coccolithes fossiles. Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. 1-129.

Reinhardt, P. 1971. Synopsis der Gattungen und Arten der mesozoischen Coccolithen und anderer kalkiger Nannofossilien. Teil III. – Freiberger Forschungshefte. C267: 19–41.

Roth, P. H. 1973. Calcareous nannofossils: Leg 17 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. 17: 695-795.

Varol, O. & Bowman, A.R. 2019. Taxonomic revision of selected Late Jurassic (Tithonian) calcareous nannofossils and the application of mobile mounting. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen. 291/1 (2019): 1–23