Bryozoan faunas at the Tortonian-Messinian transition. A palaeoenvironmental case study from Crete Island, eastern Mediterranean Author Moissette, Pierre National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, Department of Historical Geology and Paleontology 15784, Athens (Greece) and CR 2 P (CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, Sorbonne Université), Département Origines et Évolution, UMR 7207, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, case postale 38, 57 rue Cuvier, F- 75231 Paris cedex 05 (France) pmoissette@geol.uoa.gr Author Antonarakou, Assimina National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment Department of Historical Geology & Paleontology, 15784, Athens (Greece) aantonar@geol.uoa.gr Author Kontakiotis, George National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment Department of Historical Geology & Paleontology, 15784, Athens (Greece) gkontak@geol.uoa.gr Author Cornée, Jean-Jacques Géosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier Université des Antilles, CNRS, Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe, FWI (France) jean-jacques.cornee@gm.univ-montp2.fr Author Karakitsios, Vasileios National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment Department of Historical Geology & Paleontology, 15784, Athens (Greece) vkarak@geol.uoa.gr text Geodiversitas 2021 2021-12-16 43 26 1365 1400 journal article 20894 10.5252/geodiversitas2021v43a26 f8cedc0a-01dc-4bb0-855b-18064d237655 1638-9395 5796571 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:14A6956D-54AD-48D2-9C5E-BA380EDACAA4 Nellia tenella ( Lamarck, 1816 ) ( 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 ).