(Fig. 9E)
Cellaria tenella Lamarck, 1816: 135.
Nellia oculata – Busk 1852: 18, pl. 64, fig. 6; pl. 65 (bis), fig. 4. — Moissette et al. 1993: 98, fig.5i. — Moissette 1997: 192, pl. 2, figs 5-6.
Nellia tenella – Ziko et al. 2016: 18, pl. 2, fig. 6.
OCCURRENCE. — Eocene: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Romania (Braga 2008). Oligocene: USA, Malta, Libya (El Safori & Muftah 2007), UAE (Braga & Bahr 2003). Early Miocene: USA (Di Martino et al. 2017), Dominican Republic, France, Portugal, Egypt (El Safori & El-Sorogy 1999). Middle Miocene: Jamaica, Hungary (Moissette et al. 2006), Austria, France, Portugal, Egypt (Ziko et al. 2016). Late Miocene: Morocco (El Hajjaji 1992), Algeria (Moissette 1988), Crete, Turkey, Tunisia (Moissette 1997). Pliocene: Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Jamaica (Taylor & Foster 1998; Cheetham et al. 1999). Pleistocene: Rhodes (PM, pers. obs.). Recent: eastern and western Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Pacific. This species is widely distributed in tropical to subtropical waters around the world. It lives at depths between 0 and 250 m (Fransen 1986).
DESCRIPTION
Colony cellariiform. Internodes straight with quadrangular section and elongate zooids separated by shallow grooves. Opesia oval, occupying the greatest part of the zooidal frontal wall. Gymnocyst and cryptocyst well-developed proximally. Two small avicularia occur on the proximal part of the gymnocyst. Ovicells not observed.
REMARKS
Nellia oculata Busk is now regarded as a junior synonym of N. tenella (Lamarck). However, their very broad ecological, geographical and stratigraphical records may indicate either a ’’living fossil’’ species or a “cryptic species complex” (Winston et al. 2014; Di Martino et al. 2017).