Early Miocene coral reef-associated bryozoans from Colombia. Part II: "Aschophora" Cheilostomatida

Abstract

Bryozoans are common and diverse in fossil and modern coral reefs. However, studies of bryozoans in ancient reefs are generally limited, and even less is known about fossil bryozoan faunas associated with coral reefs in the Caribbean region. This is the second contribution describing the bryozoan assemblage from the early Miocene (Aquitanian) reefs of the Siamaná Formation in the La Guajira Peninsula, southern Caribbean. Here, we describe and illustrate 17 species of ascophoran-grade cheilostomes, including one new genus and three new species, Ditaxiporina colombiana n. sp., Poricella paulae n. sp., and Cycloavicularia parva n. gen. n. sp. Of the remaining fourteen taxa left in open nomenclature, one is considered confer and three affinis to species previously described, one is identified at family level, and nine at genus level. The Siamaná bryozoan fauna differs in species and colony-form composition from those associated with other paleoenvironments from Oligocene and Miocene localities of North America, the Caribbean, and Brazil.