Orbitolina spp.

Orbitolina spp.

1963 Orbitolina lenticularis – Hofker jr., pl. 17, 1-4, 6- 10; pl. 19, fig. 1-14, pl. 20 fig. 1, 10, 15 Albian – Cenomanian transition, Spain.

1973 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) concava qatarica – Schroeder, text-fig. 2b. Late Albian, Spain.

1977 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) concava – Rey et al., p. 378, pl. 2, fig. 11-12. Late Albian, Portugal.

1981 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) concava – Schroeder, pl. 2, fig. 1-3. Lower Cenomanian, southern Germany.

1985 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) concava – Moullade et al., pl. 1, fig. 11. No age or location provided.

1985 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) concava – Weidich, pl. 4, fig. 1, 4. Reworked into Late Cretaceous strata, southern Germany.

1987 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) sefini – Simmons & Hart, pl. 10.2, fig. 3. Late Albian – early Cenomanian, Oman.

1988 Orbitolina gr. concava – Velić, pl. 2, fig. 14. Lower Cenomanian, Croatia.

1992 Orbitolina cf. concava – Simmons & Williams, pl. 1, fig. 6; pl. 2, fig. 1. Early Cenomanian, southwest England.

1993 Orbitolina (Orbitolin a) duranddelgai – Bravo & Garcia, pl. 3(1). Late Albian, Spain.

2000 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) gr. sefini – concava – Husinec et al., text-fig. 10(1). Early – Middle Cenomanian, Croatia.

2001 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) gr. sefini-durandelgai [sic] - Castro et al., text-fig. 5(R). Early Cenomanian, Spain.

2005 Orbitolina concava – Schlagintweit & Wagreich, p. 117-118, pl. 1, fig. 1, 10; pl. 2, fig. 1. Early Cenomanian, Austria (although age is implied by this record).

2009 Orbitolina sefini - Lopez-Horgue et al., text-fig. 10 K-L. Lower upper Albian (varicosum ammonite zone (binum subzone)).

2009 Orbitolina (Orbitolina) concava - Parvaneh Nejad Shirazi et al., pl. 1, fig. 8. Albian, Iranian Zagros.

2015 Orbitolina concava – Schlagintweit et al., text-fig., 1a. Early – middle Cenomanian, Spain (age in part defined by occurrence).

?2018 Orbitolina sefini – Luger, p. 74-75, pl. 7, fig. 10- 14., pl. 8, fig. 1-3, 5. Late Albian, Somalia.

2018 Orbitolina ex interc. sefini / qatarica – Luger, pl. 8, fig. 4, 6-10. Late Albian, Somalia.

2020 Orbitolina gr. concava - Yazdi-Moghadam & Schlagintweit, text-fig 2A. Early Cenomanian, Iranian Zagros (note age is partly based on this occurrence).

2020 Orbitolina gr. concava – Schlagintweit & Yazdi-Moghadam, text-fig. 3D. Early Cenomanian, Iranian Zagros (note age is partly based on this occurrence).

2021 Orbitolina ex gr. concava - Yazdi-Moghadam & Schlagintweit, text-fig 7P. Early Cenomanian, Iranian Zagros (note age is partly based on this occurrence).

2021 Orbitolina ex gr. concava – Schlagintweit & Yazdi-Moghadam, text-fig 2E. Early Cenomanian, Iranian Zagros (note age is partly based on this occurrence).

2022 Orbitolina qatarica – Ezzulddin & Ibrahim, pl. 1, fig. A. Late Albian, Iraq.

2022 Orbitolina qatarica – Farsi et al., pl. 1, fig. 4. Late Albian, Iranian Zagros.

2022 Conicorbitolina conica – Farsi et al., pl. 1, fig. 5-6. Late Albian, Iranian Zagros.

2022 Orbitolina ex gr. concava - Yazdi-Moghadam & Schlagintweit, text-fig 2E. Early Cenomanian, Iranian Zagros (note age is partly based on this occurrence).

2023 Orbitolina ex gr. concava – Schlagintweit & Yazdi-Moghadam, text-fig 3E. Early Cenomanian, Iranian Zagros (note age is partly based on this occurrence).

2023 Orbitolina cf. sefin i – Xu et al., text-fig. 3B. Late Albian, Iranian Zagros.

Remarks: From this compilation of occurrences, it appears that Orbitolina spp. has a stratigraphic range from intra-late Albian to perhaps as young as middle Cenomanian (effectively the range of the genus sensu stricto) with records from across Neotethys.

An additional complication is that, notwithstanding the efforts of Schroeder in Schroeder & Neumann (1985), Cherchi & Schroeder (1999) and Simmons et al. (2000), a number of Orbitolina species remain poorly described and difficult to use with confidence until new, ideally topotype, material is presented. Orbitolina sefini and Orbitolina pauletensis are particularly problematic in this respect with only limited axial sections through the embryonic apparatus available in type material. Note too, that different understanding of chamber passage shape for O. sefini between Schroeder in Schroeder & Neumann (1985), Cherchi & Schroeder (1999) and Simmons et al. (2000) adds uncertainty to past and ongoing use of this species and of O. hensoni until more material is available. Despite this, we consider these taxa display sufficient differences (in albeit non-ideal type material) to justify the separation we have afforded them here, at least for the present.

Palaeogeographic distribution: Mainly throughout southern Neotethys, from the western Mediterranean to the Arabian Plate, with relatively more sporadic occurrences in the North Neotethyan Margin.