An early Ordovician patelliform gastropod, Palaelophacmaea, reinterpreted as a coelenterate

Abstract

Yochelson, Ellis L. & Stanley, George D., Jr. 1981 12 15: An early Ordovician patelliform gastropod, Palaelophacmaea, reinterpreted as a coelenterate. Lethaia, Vol. 15, pp. 323–330. Oslo. ISSN W24–1164. The fossil Palaelophacmaea criola Donaldson, from the early Ordovician Stonehenge Formation of central Pennsylvania, was described as a patelliform gastropod. A reinterpretation of the type lot and study of a few additional specimens provide the basis for an alternative placement. Palaelophacmaea is here assigned to the Hydrozoa, as a possible chondrophore. It has an exceptionally thin shell or test and concentric but irregular corrugations. Cambrian univalve genera having a more or less circular outline that are currently assigned to the Gastropoda or Monoplacophora should be reexamined to see whether they have the features of fossil chondrophore coelenterates rather than those of molluscs. The late Cambrian Palaeoacmaea Hall & Whitfield is removed from the monoplacophoran Mollusca and left unassigned as to phylum. We judge that at least some early Cambrian species of Scenella are probably coelenterate remains. *Early Ordovician, Palaelophacmaea, Gastropoda, Monoplacophora, Hydrozoa.