Revision of the Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene Patagonian species of Cellaria (Bryozoa, Cheilostomatida) described by Ferdinand Canu.

The genus Cellaria Ellis & Solander is characterized by erect, jointed, dichotomously branching colonies composed of cylindrical internodes, attached to the substrate by rhizoids. In Argentina, species of Cellaria have been documented from the Danian (Paleocene) to the present. We revised the Late Oligocene to Early-Middle Miocene material published by Ferdinand Canu from the San Julián, Chenque and Gaiman formations deposited in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (Paris) and the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (Buenos Aires). Three new species, Cellaria fallaxsp. nov., C. roboratasp. nov., and C. comodorensissp. nov. are described, and the status of other three species, C. ramosa Canu, C. subsetigera Canu, and C. unguiculata Canu is confirmed. Cellaria crassicollis Canu,C. semiluna Canu, C. elongata Canu and the material assigned by Canu to C. rigida perampla Waters are regarded as junior synonyms of other species described by F. Canu. The extant Magellanic species C. malvinensis (Busk) and C. variabilis (Busk) were not represented in the Patagonian Miocene. After the revision of the type material of C. minima Canu and the internodes assigned by Ortmann to the European extant species C. fistulosa (Linnaeus), we conclude that these species should be regarded as unrecognizable. The genus Erinella Canu & Bassler, based on a single eroded internode assigned to E. patagonica Canu, is here regarded as a junior subjective synonym of Cellaria, resulting in the new combination C. patagonicacomb. nov. New material from the Chenque and Monte León formations is described and illustrated. Cellaria is herein recorded for the first time in the Monte León Formation. This study adds to our knowledge of the Cenozoic bryozoans of the Atlantic coast of southern South America.