Witchellia peleka
Creators: name: Sandoval, José
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Cephalopoda
Ammonoidea
Sonniniidae
Witchellia
Witchellia peleka

description: Witchellia peleka (Buckman, 1923) [m] (Fig. 14 A-E)
Pelekodites pelekus Buckman, 1923: T.A. 4, pl. 399, figs 1-2 (HT). — Chandler et al. 2006: 370, fig. 4.5. — Dietze et al. 2007: figs 4a, b, d-g.
Maceratites spatians – Sandoval 1990: pl. 1, fig. 8.
Witchellia pelekus – Howarth 2013 (in Treatise): 121, fig. 82 4c-d (HT refigured).
MATERIAL EXAMINED. — MOD. R.1, JAC3.(7-14).1, JAC3.(7-14).2, JAC3.(7-14).3, JAC3.19.1, JAC4.11.5, JAC4.15.1, JAC6. R.6, JAC11.3.1, JAC11.3a.2, JAC11.(3-7).1 JAC11.4.8, JAC11. R.54, JAC11. R.65, JAC13.34.1, JAC13.34.2, JAC13.34.3, JAC13.34.5, JAC13.34.5, JAC13.34.5b, JAC13.34.6, JAC13.34.8, JAC13.34.9, JAC13.34.1, JAC22.5.24, JAC22.18.3, JAQ 1.(-16), 1 JAQ 1.(-15).1, JAQ 1.(-15).2, TT.76.1 and JSP.1.
MEASUREMENTS. — See Table 21.
DESCRIPTION
Small microconchs, relatively evolute with apparent uncoiling in BC. The whorl section is subovate with a subrounded umbilical wall, almost as wide as high in the HT. The keel, well developed, is limited in some specimens by small sulci. The aperture is complex with well-developed spatulate lappets. The inner whorls are smooth or have faint ornamentation, without apparent tubercles. Later, ribs surging near the rounded umbilical edge are sigmoid, first strongly proverse and afterwards strongly retroverse with a faint forward projection on the ventrolateral edge. The ribbing weakens progressively on the BC, whose final part can be smooth. The septal suture is not preserved in the Subbetic specimens.
REMARKS
The specimen figured as “ Poecilomorphus Macer ” byBuckman (1889: 116, pl. 22, figs 27-28), for which Buckman (1928: 11) proposed the subtitute name “ Maceratites ” aurifer, and which was included in the present species byFernández-López (1985: 96), closely resembles the HT of W. peleka, but has slightly more evolute coiling and a slightly more compressed whorl section in addition to an almost oblique to sub-vertical umbilical wall. According to Callomon & Chandler (1990: 98), “ P.” pelekus includes Maceratites macer Buckman, 1889 (Buckman 1889: only figs 23, 24) and Spatulites spatians Buckman, 1928. Later, Chandler et al. (2006) and Dietze et al. (2007) showed that the type species of “ P. ” pelekus, from the Ovale Zone (Bj-5 horizon), has a chronostratigraphy that sharply differs from that of the types of “ M. ” macer (Bj-10a horizon) and “ Sp. ” spatians (Bj-10a or Bj-10b horizons), which are from the upper part of the Laeviuscula Zone. Thus, “ Sp. ” spatians and “ M. ” macer could be synonymous with each other, but not with W. peleka.
DISTRIBUTION
According to Chandler et al. (2006: 370), the type of W. peleka (Buckman 1923) comes from lower part of Ovale Zone (horizon Bj-5) of Dundry, Somerset (England). In the same locality and same stratigraphic position, the species has been cited by Dietze et al. (2007). In south-western Germany, it has been cited from the Laeviuscula Zone, Trigonalis Subzone (Dietze et al. 2011b). In the Iberian Range, “ P.” pelekus has been cited in the Ovale Zone (Fernández-López 1985), but the specimens figured there are quite different from the HT. The Subbetic specimens classified as W. peleka are mainly from the Ovale Zone of Sierra de Alta Coloma and Barranco de Agua Larga (Jaén Province).
description: Published as part of Sandoval, José, 2022, Sonniniidae Ammonitina, Middle Jurassic from Southern Spain: taxonomic, biostratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical analysis, pp. 801-851 in Geodiversitas 44 (27) on page 836, DOI: 10.5252/geodiversitas2022v44a27, http://zenodo.org/record/7150329