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Gardodinium albertii

Gardodinium albertii Neale and Sarjeant, 1962

Originally (and now) Gardodinium, subsequently Chlamydophorella.
Davey, 1978, transferred this species to Chlamydophorella Cookson and Eisenack, 1958. Lentin and Williams, 1989, retained it in Gardodinium.
Taxonomic senior synonym: Scriniodinium (as and now Gardodinium) trabeculosum, according to Harding (1996, p.359).

Holotype: Neale and Sarjeant, 1962, pl.19, fig.6
Locus typicus: Speeton Clay, Heslerton, England
Stratum typicum: Hauterivian

Original diagnosis: Neale and Sarjeant, 1962, p.445
A species of Cardodinium having a rounded polygonal cyst with a strong apical horn, obliquely truncated distally and with a denticulate edge. Theca rounded polygonal, with a low rounded apical prominence and a flattened antapex. Longitudinal furrow of moderate breadth, widening slightly posteriorly: transverse furrow narrow, strongly laevo-rotatory. Surface of theca elsewhere covered by short, knobbed spines. Vestiges of a tabulation, in the form of very low spinebearing ridges; pattern of tabulation not capable of full determination.

Original description: Neale and Sarjeant, 1962, p. 445-446
Cyst pale yellow in colour, minutely and intensively folded; apical horn probably, but not certainly, open. The cyst surrounds the theca closely, except at the antapex. Theca deep yellow in colour. The spines vary in length and density, being longest near the antapex and more dense on the dorsal than on the ventral surface.
Tabulation not capable of full determination, but at Icast fivc preequatorial and six post-equatorial plates present. The longitudinal furrow extends onto the antapex, which is therefore free of spines.
Dimensions: Cyst length 79 µm, breadth 54 µm. Theca length 54 µm, breadth 49 µm. Range: Cysts 50-85x50-75 µm.

Affinities:
Neale and Sarjeant, 1962, p. 446: G. albertii differs from all other species of this genus in the characters of its apical horn and the thecal spines, which are never bifurcate or linked. The dorsoventral flattening remarked on by Alberti is less pronounced in this species. The traces of tabulation suggest an affinity to the genus Scriniodiniurn Klement.
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