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Aptea anaphrissa

Aptea anaphrissa, (Sarjeant, 1966), Sarjeant and Stover, 1978

NOW Pseudoceratium. Originally Doidyx, subsequently Tenua Eisenack, 1958, thirdly Aptea, fourthly (and now) Pseudoceratium.

Holotype: Sarjeant, 1966, pl.22, fig.8; text-fig.55
Age: Early Barremian

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Original description as Doidyx anaphrissa: [Sarjeant 1966, p. 206-207]:

Diagnosis:
A Doidyx having a asymmetrical biconical shell with short, blunt apical horn and with low bump on antapex. Spines simple, capitate or briefly bifurcate. Portion thrown off in archaeopyle formation exceeding one-third of shell length.

Description:
This species is moderately abundant, some 25 specimens having been encountered; complete shells were infrequent, detached apices and shells lacking an apex being commoner. The shell is approximately club-shaped: its asymmetry is so pronounced that a longitudinal division would leave some 60% on one side, some 40% on the other. The epitract slopes smoothly into the apical horn; the hypotract is surmounted by an antapical bulge of small height and larger amplitude. The surface is very minutely granular. There is a dense cover of short spines, most often capitate, less frequently evexate, oblate, bifid or bifurcate: these sometimes suggest arrangement into lines, but no coherent pattern was determined. An equatorial belt of moderate breadth, corresponding to the cingulum, lacks spines: a sulcus is not distinguishable. The holotype shows fission to form an archaeopyle, which has however, not become detached. Its margin is distinctly angular, suggesting a tabulation pattern not otherwise indicated.

Dimensions:
Holotype: overall length 105 µm, breadth 118 µm; shell length 110 µm, breadth 102 µm; spines c. 7 µm long.
Range of dimensions: overall lengths c. 120-145 µm, breadths c. 105-130 µm.

Affinities/Remarks:
In its combination of shape, process cover and mode of archaeopyle formation, Doidyx anaphrissa differs from all other described species Aptea anaphrisa

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Sarjeant and Stover 1978, p. 51:

Affinities:
Aptea anaphrissa is similar to A. eisenackii (Davey) Davey and Verdier (1974), but differs in having isolated processes only, rather than a combination of discontinuous crests and laminae with scattered processes.
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