Rare bryozoans from the Gault Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian) of Kent, England

Abstract

Relatively few bryozoans have been recorded to date from the Gault Clay Formation of southern England, yet the Albian (late Early Cretaceous) age of this unit makes it potentially of importance in understanding the roots of the major radiations of cheilostome and cyclostome bryozoans during the Late Cretaceous. Two bryozoan genera are here described for the first time from the Gault Clay on the basis of single specimens from the upper part of this unit at Paddlesworth (Kent), recently discovered in the collection of the late Joe Collins. A colony of the cheilostome Wawalia crenulata that preserves the putative ancestrula reveals two novel features: a spiral pattern of early budding and the presence of pyrite-filled lacunae in the thick vertical walls of the zooids. The second bryozoan is a branch fragment of the erect eleid cyclostome genus Biforicula. Representing the oldest record of this genus, it is described as Biforicula collinsi sp. nov.