The monothalamous foraminiferan Tinogullmia in the Black Sea

Abstract. INTRODUCTION

The organic-walled allogromiid genus Tinogullmia was established by Nyholm (1954) based on a single species, T. hyalina, from the Gullmar Fjord on the Swedish west coast. This distinctive species is characterized by an elongate, smoothly curved test with two terminal apertures located at the ends of tubular extensions. A similar species occurs in Kongsfjord, Svalbard (Gooday et al., 2005). Several other organic-walled allogromiids have been assigned to the genus Tinogullmia but are distinctly different from T. hyalina. A deep-water species from the NE Atlantic, described as Tinogullmia riemanni by Gooday (1990), has a relatively short, asymmetrical test and possibly represents a distinct genus. An undescribed sausageshaped species from Explorers Cove, Antarctica, assigned to Tinogullmia by Gooday et al. (1996), has a less elongate shape than T. hyalina and a thinner wall. The purpose of this note is to report the first record of this distinctive genus from the Black Sea.

OBSERVATIONS

During the 45^th cruise of the Research Vessel Professor Vodyanitsky in 1994, three core samples were obtained using a multiple corer (Barnett et al., 1984) as part of an investigation of a methane seep area southwest of the Crimean peninsula (Station 5186; 44° 46.342′N, 31° 35.342′E, 78 m water depth). The sampling area bottom-water temperature is 8–10°C, rising to 13–15°C in summer; salinity is 17–18‰. The bottom sediment is phaseolinic silt (i.e. an alevrit silt associated live molluscs and dead molluscan shells). Each core was sub-sampled using a plastic tube, diameter 9.5 cm, length 5 . . .