Phoceana gabrielei, Martino & Rosso & Taylor & Chiu & Fujita & Kitamura & Yasuhara, 2025

Phoceana gabrielei sp. nov.

Di Martino, Rosso and Taylor

Figure 44 View FIGURE 44

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Type material. Holotype PMC. B65. 29.7.2024 a, sample 19140 ( Figure 44A–B View FIGURE 44 ); paratypes PMC. B65. 29.7.2024 b1, sample 19185 ( Figure 44C–E View FIGURE 44 ); paratype PMC. B65. 29.7.2024 b2, sample 19125 ( Figure 44F–H View FIGURE 44 ); Core 19, Daidokutsu cave, Okinawa, Japan, Holocene.

Etymology. Named after a close friend of the first author, Dr Gabriele Lanzafame, volcanologist at the University of Catania.

Diagnosis. Phoceana with encrusting colonies; autozooids lacking basal walls; frontal shield evenly pseudoporous with subconical tubercles around margins; hoof-shaped orifice with median pseudolyrula but lacking condyles, surrounded by a flared, undulose peristome; avicularia absent; ovicell peristomial with faintly nodular and imperforate ooecium.

Description. Holotype colony tubular, cylindrical, hollow, likely encrusting an ephemeral organic substrate; paratype colonies irregularly shaped, encrusting a small substrate (i.e., sediment grain or bioclast), continuing to develop independently afterward. Autozooids with entirely uncalcified basal walls, with almost indistinct boundaries marked by very shallow grooves or faint wrinkles, irregularly arranged, sometimes back to back, with opposite polarities or tilted relative to each other, typically hexagonal, occasionally rhomboidal, large and elongate (mean ZL/ZW 1.49). Frontal shield convex, faintly nodular, evenly and densely perforated by small, circular pseudopores, 5–13 µm in diameter, except around the peristome; marginal areolae not distinguishable; subconical tubercles developing around the zooidal margin, with a base characterized by two concentric rings: an outer ring 42–52 µm in diameter and an inner ring 17–32 µm in diameter; when preserved, tubercles ranging from 40 to 55 µm in length. Orifice hoof-shaped with a rounded anter, parallel sides, and a proximal margin bearing a pseudolyrula resembling the curve of a flattened Gaussian distribution, measuring 18–35 µm in length and 100–130 µm in width, occupying the centre of the proximal margin and about half of its total length, giving it a convex appearance, without condyles. Peristome relatively short, measuring 195–400 µm in lateral view, terminating in a flared, undulose collar with expanded wings 55–100 µm wide, which can be folded. Spines and avicularia absent. Ovicell peristomial with an imperforate and faintly nodular ooecium that has a more granular texture compared to the frontal shield; the proximal margin coinciding with the flared distal margin of the peristome; secondary orifice of ovicellate zooids more bell-shaped.

Measurements (µm). ZL 952±159, 756–1302 (4, 11); ZW 640±72, 539–734 (4, 11); OL 223±16, 189– 238 (4, 8); OW 196±13, 170–208 (4, 8); OvL 334±110, 208–411 (2, 3); OvW 442±42, 393–467 (2, 3).

Remarks. We attributed this species to the genus Phoceana based on several distinct characters: the presence of a pseudolyrula (a median more or less semicircular denticle formed by the elevation of the peristomial wall), a peristomial ovicell, a flared peristome, and the absence of avicularia and of condyles in the orifice.

The genus Phoceana currently includes five species: three Recent species— P. columnaris Jullien, 1903 , the type species of the genus from the Northeast Atlantic, P. acadiana Lagaaij, 1963 , from Gulf of Mexico, and P. tubulifera (Heller, 1867) from the Mediterranean—and two fossils, P. pliocenica Pouyet, 1978 , from the Pliocene of Spain, and the Eocene P.? simulator (Canu and Bassler, 1920) from North Carolina. All previously known species are characterized by their erect and branched colonies, and long, tubular peristomes. Additionally, P. columnaris has pseudopores limited to the proximal and lateral portions of the frontal shield (Pouyet, 1978, pl. 1, figure 3), while P.? simulator occasionally features a small avicularium on the peristome. The current distribution of the genus Phoceana is limited to the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Phoceana gabrielei sp. nov. represents the first record of the genus in the Pacific.