Re-study of some dinoflagellate cysts from the Oligocene and Miocene of Germany

Abstract. The type material of six dinoflagellate cyst species from the Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene of northwest Germany, described originally by Gerlach (1961), is reillustrated and redescribed. It is shown to include representatives of nine species. Areosphaeridium (ex: Baltisphaeridium) pectiniforme is found to be a senior synonym of Areosphaeridium multicornutum Eaton. Systematophora placacantha is considered to be a senior synonym of Cleistosphaeridium (ex: Baltisphaeridium) panniforme (Gerlach). The new combination Rhynchodiniopsis tenuitabulata (Gerlarch) is proposed. Revised diagnoses for these three species and for Leptodinium membranigerum (Gerlach), Achomosphaera triangulata (Gerlach) and Lejeunecysta hyalina (Gerlach) are proposed. The morphology of a form described here for the first time, and tentatively attributed to Phthanoperidinium, is considered perhaps to imply a separate origin for the Phthanoperidiniaceae: for that reason familial, rather than tribal, rank is preferred for that group. The stratigraphical ranges of the nine species here recognised and of two others of Gerlach’s species redescribed in earlier papers are detailed; elimination of misattributed forms means that these ranges are shorter than the published literature suggests.