Uraloporella Korde in the Devonian of Alberta

Abstract

The first record of Uraloporella variabilis Korde outside the Carboniferous of Eurasia is made from the Givetian–Frasnian of Alberta, Canada. This problematic tubiform calcareous microfossil occurs in the subsurface Swan Hills Formation of west-central Alberta and in the Cairn Formation exposed in the Rocky Mountains of southwest Alberta. It is always fragmentary and occurs in shelf–shoal facies of the interior of carbonate platforms, usually in peloid packstones and wackestones associated with calcispheres and dendroid stromatoporoids. Locally it is very common. The specimens differ from the original diagnosis by exhibiting septa and rare branching. The presence of septa is confirmed in the type material from Russia and the genus is amended accordingly. A dasycladacean affinity is excluded and the assumed algal nature of the genus is questioned.