INTERPRETIVE MORPHOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF BRYOZOAN GENUS TABULIPORA

Tabulipora YOUNG, 1883, is an upper Paleozoic bryozoan genus having T. uni (FLEM-ING, 1828) as its type species by monotypy. A lectotype for T. urii is selected herein from the syntypes which were collected and partially figured by URE in 1793. All species of Tabulipora possess perforate transverse partitions which are called ring septa in this paper. The growth of these structures near the apertures of the zooecia by concentric addition of laminae, and the common kidney-shaped form of the distally offset perforations (foramina) suggest that they were the anterior walls of the living chambers. Diaphragms (transverse partitions without perforations), which probably formed the posterior walls of the living chambers, are common in Pennsylvanian and Permian species of Tabu/ipora. In many Tabulipora species, zoarial growth increments composed of alternately thin and thick zooecial walls were formed as a result of cyclic fluctuations in the total area of CaCO3 deposition. These growth increments give the walls their characteristic moniliform appearance in longitudinal sections. Branch extension accelerated during the thin-walle