Exechonella (Exechonellidae: Bryozoa, Cheilostomata) from the recent and miocene of Southern Australia

The cheilostome family Exechonellidae Harmer, 1957 is widely distributed in time and space. The genus Exechonella Duvergier, 1924 has a pan-tropical to subtropical distribution from the Eocene to the Recent and is represented by several Australian species from the Tertiary of Victoria and the Recent ofthe southern and eastern coasts. Some species exhibit a wide range of variation in morphological characters, and one, Exechonella papillata, "appears to be new, and is described here. Nearly all specimens are encrusting, but one Tertiary Victorian species has erect, cylindrical, branching colonies. Recent samples, from a depth range of 40-190 metres, include large colonies of several thousand zooids. Frontal wall structures include marginal septular pores connecting between the visceral and hypostegal coeloms, and frontal foramina. Avicularia and homologous structures derived from frontal septular pores are illustrated. The structure of the frontal foramina in different populations of Tertiary E. marginata, demonstrates a major development of hypostegal coelom not found in other species, but resembling that found in another exechonellid genus, Stephanopora Kirkpatrick, 1888.<br />