Belonechitina sp. 1

Belonechitina sp. 1 ( Fig. 5H View Fig )

Material: One flattened specimen.

Description: Te specimen is incomplete. Te chamber is long-columnar. Tere are no shoulder, flexure, and neck. Te aperture and the base are broken, and the base is covered by debris. Te ornaments on the wall surface are short spines, and the interval of size between the spines is about 0.5 μm.

Measurements: Measured data based on one specimen.

Comparison and remarks: Te long columnar chamber and short spiny ornaments indicate that it can be assigned to Belonechitina . Although Belonechitina cavei Mullins & Loydell, 2001 , Belonechitina parvispinata Soufiane & Achab, 2000 , Belonechitina postrobusta Nestor, 1980 and Belonechitina sp. 1 all have long columnar chamber, they are different taxa. Te most evident difference between Belonechitina sp. 1 , Be. cavei and Be. parvispinata is the ornamentation. Te ornaments of Be. cavei and Be. parvispinata are irregular ridges and grana ( Loydell et al., 2010; Mullins & Loydell, 2001, 2002) and multirooted (λ-like) spines, respectively. But the ornaments of Be. sp. 1 are short spines. Although the specimen we obtain here is similar to Be. postrobusta reported by Geng et al. (1997), Grahn (2006), Loydell et al., (2003, 2010), Männik et al. (2015), Nestor (2012), Soufiane and Achab (2000), and Verniers et al. (1995), the specimen is poorly preserved and more morphological features are unknown. Terefore, we tentatively assign it to Belonechitina sp. 1 .

Locality and stratigraphic horizon: Unit 8 (the uppermost part of the Shenxuanyi Member) of the Majia section.