Scrippsiella trochoidea and scrippsiella regalis, nov. comb. (peridiniales, dinophyceae): a comparison

Culture experiments on dinoflagellates from the Atlantic Ocean revealed Scrippsiella regalis (Gaarder) Janofske, nov. comb., a calciodinelloid species with a spherical spiny calcareous cyst. This calcareous cyst was collected previously from plankton and sediment samples, where it was described as the coccolithophorid Discosphaera regalis Gaarder or was often mistaken for the cyst of Scrippsiella trochoidea (von Stein) Loeblich III. The morphological features of both the cellulosic theca and the calcareous cyst of S. trochoidea and S. regalis were compared with respect to their systematic position and the emendation of taxa. Both species were found to have different distribution patterns. Scrippsiella trochoidea is known only from the neritic environment, whereas S. regalis has been found mostly in oceanic samples. The preservation of these spiny calcareous dinocysts in the (fossil) sediment was dependent on the ultrastructure of the calcareous layer of the cyst wall.