ABSTRACT. Studies on the taxonomy and morphology of the Famennian heterocoral Oligophylloides have placed great emphasis on the character of the soft tissue, coloniality and distal development of the skeleton with regard to the construction of the wall. Here, the existence of soft tissue covering the entire skeleton of the colony is proposed. Thirty-eight branching specimens have been found in addition to the predominant single fragments of corallites; these should be regarded as colonial with a well-developed branching form. It is here proposed that the external wall grew not only at the distal end, and that its thickening did not result from the overlapping of tabulae, but was built independently of tabulae by the soft tissue covering the whole skeleton of the colony. The following new characteristics of Oligophylloides are described: a change in the position of septa, so-called`septal shifting', a rearrangement of the septal apparatus; the occurrence of aulos-like structures; a groove ornamentation on the external wall; and the granular microstructure of the axial part of septa. A detailed study of Late Devonian Oligophylloides corals shows that O. tenuicinctus Ro Âz Çkowska and O. pachythecus pentagonus Ro Âz Çkowska are synonymous with O. pachythecus Ro Âz Çkowska.KEY WORDS: heterocoral, Famennian, Oligophylloides, soft-tissue, coloniality, septa.T H E genus Oligophylloides was described for the ®rst time by Ro Âz Çkowska (1969), who distinguished two species: O. pachythecus (with two subspecies) and O. tenuicinctus, which are distinguished by the thickness of the external wall (protoheterotheca sensu Fedorowski 1991). These corallites lack calices, are much elongated, oval in transverse section, and have a smooth, thick or thin external wall and a maximum of 12 septa (according to the original diagnosis). The corallite has a`talon' (term questioned by Fedorowski 1991, p. 36) on its proximal part and a distal cone at the opposite end (Wrzoøek 1993). The material studied by Ro Âz Çkowska originated solely from the Famennian of the Holy Cross Mountains and was found in such localities as èago Âw, Kadzielnia, Gaøe Ëzice, Kowala and Jabonna. The genus is, in fact, relatively widespread through an area extending from Poland through Germany and France to Morocco (Weyer 1997).The original diagnosis of O. pachythecus, currently one of the most frequently studied species of the Heterocorallia, may still be supplemented with new features. Among them, the most important characteristics are: the centrifugal growth of skeletal elements (Wrzoøek 1978;Sutherland and Forbes 1981;Fedorowski 1991), the conical termination of the distal part (Wrzoøek 1981(Wrzoøek , 1993, and the lamellar microstructure of skeletal elements (Wrzoøek 1981; Karwowski and Wrzoøek 1987). At the same time, the morphology, increase and mutual relations of septa are often inferred from other, better documented, genera of the subclass Dividocoralia Fedorowski, 1991 because the sequence of septal insertion in the ontogeny and hystero-ontogeny of O. pa...

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The paper focuses on the taxonomic description of the lower Carboniferous (uppermost Tournaisian to middle Viséan) solitary rugose corals from bedded limestone and shale units in the Flett Formation in the Jackfish Gap (eastern Liard Range), northwestern Canada. The corals described herein include 12 species representing the genera Ankhelasma Sando, 1961, Bradyphyllum Grabau, 1928, Caninophyllum Lewis, 1929, Cyathaxonia Michelin, 1847, Ekvasophyllum Parks, 1951, Enniskillenia Kabakovich in Soshkina et al., 1962, Vesiculophyllum Easton, 1944 and Zaphrentites Hudson, 1941. Two of these species are new (Ankhelasma canadense sp. nov. and Ekvasophyllum variabilis sp. nov.) and 6 taxa are described in open nomenclature. The distribution and relative abundance of solitary Rugosa in Europe and the Liard Basin confirm the geographical proximity of those areas and the open marine communication between them during the early Carboniferous. It therefore represents an important contribution to the determination of the time of isolation of the western Laurussia shelf fauna from that of southeastern Laurussia, as well as the time of the possible emergence of species from southeastern Laurussia into the western Laurussia seas. Of particular importance here are cosmopolitan taxa and the timing of their disappearance from the fossil record.