A study has been made of the receptaculite Tetragonis sulcata d'Eichwald, 1860 in Upper Ordovician erratics from the northern Netherlands. D'Eichwald's original description is reviewed, giving a wider conception of the morphological diversity of receptaculites. Tetragonis sulcata is placed in the family Tetragonaceae Rietschel, 1969 (nomen correctum), together with Lepidolites dickhauti Ulrich, 1879. The aim of this study was to reconstruct the living receptaculite organism by documenting homologies between Tetragonis sulcata and receptaculites described in the literature. Through analysis of a diverse set of morphological features which thus were obtained, an attempt could be made to determine the pattern of receptaculite morphogenesis. This study... |