Lower Devonian (Emsian) rugose corals from the Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain Author Schröder, Stefan Author Soto, Francisco text Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 2003 2003-09-30 48 4 547 558 journal article 10.5281/zenodo.13390843 1732-2421 13390843 Genus Tabulophyllum Fenton and Fenton, 1924 Type species (by original designation): Tabulophyllum rectum Fenton and Fenton, 1924 . Diagnosis .—See Sorauf 1989: 33 . Remarks .—In general, only solitary corals are currently assigned to the genus Tabulophyllum , and the classification of colonial forms as Tabulophyllum by Soshkina (1952) , Bulvanker (1958) and Ivaniya (1965 , 1980 ) has been rejected ( McLean and Pedder 1987 ; Sorauf 1989 ). The new species of Tabulophyllum described herein is apparently solitary but displays a distinctive growth known as “quasi−colonial” and such solitary species with few lateral offsets should also be included in the generic concept of Tabulophyllum . Fig. 2. Stratigraphical section at Colle (Lower Devonian), with location of beds where the studied rugose corals occur (modified from Garcia−Alcalde 1999 ). Similar structures are also known from the closely related kyphophyllid genus Tarphyphyllum McLean and Pedder, 1984 . Its type species T. besti McLean and Pedder, 1984 is a solitary species developing few offsets ( McLean and Pedder 1984 : pl. 11: 4, 7, 10), whereas one paratype is weakly branching to fasciculate ( McLean and Pedder 1984 : pl. 10: 12). Internally Tarphyphyllum differs from Tabulophyllum only in having a more strongly developed stereozone of dilated septa, masking the dissepiments, a more simple tabularium, and less numerous dissepiments. Because of the striking resemblances between both genera Sorauf (1998: 49) suggests that Tarphyphyllum should rather be regarded as subgenus of Tabulophyllum . Probably some of the weakly colonial species previously assigned to Tabulophyllum should be removed to Tarphyphyllum . Colonial species of Tarphyphyllum may also be very difficult to separate from Smithiphyllum Birenheide, 1962 ( McLean and Pedder 1984: 28 ; Sorauf 1998: 49 ). Occurrence .—The stratigraphic occurrence of Tabulophyllum is mainly Upper Devonian and the genus is globally distributed in the Frasnian. Only a few species are known from the Lower Devonian of Australia and Belgium ( Tsien 1977 ; Hill 1942 ; Sorauf 1989 ; Zhen 1995 ). However, the known Lower Devonian species assigned to Tabulophyllum closely resemble the Upper Devonian forms in their general morphology, withlong majorsepta commonly interrupted by large lonsdaleoid dissepiments.