TAXONOMIC REMARKS ON SIDEROLITES JURASSICA YOUSSEF & EL-SOROGY, 2015, CALLOVIAN OF SAUDI-ARABIA

Abstract

The increasing availability of numerous journals with limited peer review and editorial standards has led to an ever-increasing introduction of new fossil taxa that ultimately need taxonomic revision. The introduction of dubious and poorly described taxa adds confusion to the scientific literature. Furthermore, their potential inclusion in global taxonomic databases, and the subsequent usage of this data in review papers necessitates critical comment and thoughtful clarification. The recent introduction of Siderolites jurassica Youssef & El-Sorogy is a good example of a taxon that is both poorly described and which clouds the literature, thus requiring revision. This species was described and illustrated from just one isolated specimen obtained from Callovian marls in Saudi Arabia. Siderolites represents an exclusively Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) complex rotaloid Large Benthic Foraminifera with a distinctive identity that can be clearly deciphered by studying oriented and random thin-sections. A Jurassic occurrence would overturn our current understanding of foraminiferal evolution as well as their usage for biostrat-igraphic analyses. It is suspected that the Middle Jurassic specimen described from Saudi Arabia belongs to a small-sized group of arenaceous benthic foraminifera exhibiting conical protuberances (or spines) such as Thurammina Brady and should neither be regarded as belonging to the genus Siderolites nor any other siderolitid representative.