Redescription of the type collections of Maslov’s species of Corallinales (Rhodophyta). II. Species included by Maslov in Archaeolithothamnium Rothpletz, 1891.

Abstract

Maslov described a large number of taxa of fossil calcareous algae, most belonging to Corallinales (Rhodophyta), in publications written in Russian and printed in the former USSR from 1929 to 1973. The type collections of these taxa are housed in the laboratory of palaeophycology in the Geological Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences of Moscow. Maslov’s species names must be taken into consideration in any taxonomic work dealing with corallinalean red algae, although their nomenclatural status and taxonomic significance need reassessment with a modern approach. Here we redescribe the types of four coralline algal species from lower Eocene and Miocene (Badenian) rocks of Abkhazia, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine attributed by Maslov (1956) to the genus Archaeolithothamnium. Our examination of Archaeolithothamnium afonensis, A. ferganense, A. irinae, and A. keenanii var. lvovicum leads us to transfer them to Sporolithon. The types are described and illustrated focusing on characters relevant in modern sporolithacean taxonomy. Sporolithon irinae (Maslov), comb. nov. is lectotypified.