NAME Felixites pollenisimilis (Horst) Elsik 1990b.
AGE (Horst; Playford) Carboniferous; (Butterworth & Williams): Early Carboniferous.   AGE span: 359.2...299 mya
K&J CLASSIFICATION (2000) Fungi Imperfecti, Didymosporae.
FIGURE(S)
Image of
Pl.7fig.30.jpg
FIGURE REFERENCE Horst U. 1955. Die Sporae dispersae des Namurs von Westoberschlesien und Mährisch-Ostrau, Palaeontographica, Abt. B, v. 98, p. 137-236.
SPECIES, AUTHORITY F. pollenisimilis (Horst 1955) Elsik 1990b, p. 158.
LOCATION (Horst) Concordia mine, Adit Andreas IV, Upper Selesia, S. Poland; (Butterworth & Williams): Lothians, Central and West Fife coalfields, Scotland; (Playford): Billefjorden Sandstones, Spitsbergen, Norway.
ORIG DESCRIPTION* (Horst 1955): In ... several adits of Upper Silesia and the Mahrish-Ostrau mining area, a form was found that consists of a central body with two distinct blister-like cells. It is a smooth elliptical body of brown color, with yellow bubble-like cells with a diameter of 13-20 μm (Fig. 84-87). In the midsection the body is frequently constricted, such that the round form of the cells becomes visible.

EMENDED DESCRIPTION (Playford): In addition to the usual bicellular forms, occasional specimens possessing one or three translucent “heads” were encountered. Measurements of thirty-five specimens gave a size range of 21-52 μm (mean 36 μm).

(Elsik): Aporate, psilate, dicellate fungal spores of elliptical to bilobate outline; the spore outline can be indented at the septum. Occasionally 3-celled specimens are seen with a trilobate outline; the cells radiate from a common center, or two cells share the septum of the third. The overall spore size is 13-20 x 23-39 μm. An individual dispersed cell would have an ovate outline truncated at the base by the septal layer; those specimens would be 13-20 x 10-20 μm. The inner outline of each cell cavity is nearly ovate, but is truncated at the septum; the inner cavity has a more or less hemispherical shape. The spore wall is 1-3 μm at the ends of the spore, and does not thicken into the septum. The septum is of two distinct layers, 10-12 μm or thicker. The septal pore is not obvious. The septal area is the most darkly pigmented, and is practically opaque in many specimens.
COMMENTS* (Horst): Sporonites pollenisimilis is distinguished from coniferous pollen by the fact that its cells have no reticulate structure. Karczewski (1907, pl. 1, fig. 5-6) found S. pollenisimilis in the Dombrown mining area; he pictured it, however, without any description.

(Butterworth & Williams): These spores appear to be fungal in origin. Similar spores are found in the recent Chaetosphaeria. Chaetosphaerites pollenisimilis is remarkably like the Eocene form C. bilychnis Felix 1894. The typical form of C. pollenisimilis is that shown in pl, 1, fig. 2, in which the spore possesses two translucent "heads". Occasionally, however, spores are seen which possess one or apparently three "heads" (pl. 1, figs. 1 & 3).

(Playford): Chaetosphaerites pollenisimilis (Horst) has been recorded previously from European strata of Namurian age (Horst, 1955; Dybová & Jachowicz, 1957; Butterworth & Williams, 1958), from the Golata formation (Upper Mississipian) of Canada (Staplin, 1960), and from one sample (S59a) of the Spitsbergen Lower Carboniferous (Hughes & Playford, 1961). Butterworth & Millott (1960) indicate a Viséan-Namurian distribution in British coals.

(Elsik): The cell cavities of Felixites pollenisimilis (Horst 1943) [as emended and combined by Elsik 1990b] are hemispherical, whereas those of F. playfordii are more or less spherical in uncompressed specimens to broadly ovate in compressed specimens.
PUBLICATION REFERENCE Horst U. 1955. Die Sporae dispersae des Namurs von Westoberschlesien und Mährisch-Ostrau, Palaeontographica, Abt. B, v. 98, p. 137-236.

Playford G. 1962. Lower Carboniferous microfloras of Spitsbergen; Palaeontology, v. 5, p. 550-618.

Elsik WC. 1990. The fungal morphotype Felixites n. gen.; Pollen et Spores, v. 31 (1989), p. 155-159.

Butterworth MA, Williams RW. 1958. The small spore floras of coals in the Limestone Coal Group and Upper Limestone Group of the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland; Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, v. 63, pt. 2, no. 17 (1957-58), p. 353-392.
K&J REMARKS See also remarks from Kalgutkar and Jansonius (2000) under Sporonites cylindricus, which is a junior nomenclatural synonym.
TYPE
ALL NAMES (Including synonyms) Aletes pollenisimilis Horst 1943 (nom. nud).
Sporonites pollenisimilis Horst 1955, p. 150, pl. 24, fig. 84.
Sporonites cylindricus Dybová & Jachowicz 1957, p. 56, pl. 1, fig. 1-4. [See also OUR REMARKS under Sporonites cylindricus.]
Chaetosphaerites pollenisimilis (Horst) Butterworth & Williams 1958, p. 359.
Chaetosphaerites pollenisimilis (Horst) Butterworth & Williams, emend. Playford 1962, p. 573.; Felixites pollenisimilis; Felixites pollenisimilis (Horst) Elsik 1990b.;
SERIAL NUMBER 558
PUBLIC COMMENTS
 *For source, see Publication Reference.