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Barssidinium taxandrianum

Barssidinium taxandrianum, Louwye, 1999, p.119-121, pl.4, figs.1-6; pl.5, figs.1-2.

Holotype: Louwye, 1999, pl.4, figs.4-6, Slide Grob. 1(1), England Finder reference L56=3
Type locality: Outcrop at the PIDPA waterworks, altitude 5.15 m TAW, Grobbendonk, Antwerp province, Belgium.
Type stratum: Diest Formation, Upper Miocene.
Age: Late Miocene.

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Original description: [Louwye, 1999]:

Diagnosis:
A dorsoventrally compressed, proximochorate species with subcircular to rounded subquadrangular ambitus and hollow, acuminate and distally closed processes.
Processes have internal annular thickenings or septa. The distribution of the processes is nontabular and appears denser at the margin of the cyst.
The tabulation is expressed only by a large, intercalary 2a archeopyle (hexa isodeltaform). Operculum free or adherent.

Description:
The pigmented cyst wall is apparently made up of a laevigate autophragm only. The wall often has an irregular, grooved appearance. A discrete scabrate or minutely granular ornamentation was observed on a few specimens.
The thin processes are slightly widened at their base and they narrow rapidly at mid-length. The processes are 120 S. Louwye / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 107 (1999) 109–123 usually simple although a few processes on each specimen bifurcate at mid length. A re-entrant angle on the opercular plate was observed on a few specimens.

Dimensions:
Holotype: length, 70 µm; width, 70 µm; length of processes, 5–8 µm.
Range: central body length 64(72)85 µm; central body width. 54(63)74 µm; minimum length of processes, 5(7)9 µm; S. Louwye / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 107 (1999) 109–123 121 maximum length of processes, 7(8)13 µm. Number of specimens measured: 11.

Affinities/Comparison:
This species differs from all other Barssidinium species by its hollow, acuminate and distally closed processes. Occurrence: Upper Miocene (Diest Formation) of northern Belgium (this study)
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