Freshwater bryozoan remains from the Molteno Formation (Upper Triassic) of South Africa

From the Upper Triassic Molteno Formation of South Africa more than 1000 specimens of small convex and circui ar-shaped statoblasts have been discovered. They are of two size classes (0.6 mm and 1 mm in diameter), reflecting at least two different taxa. Nearly all specimens are concentrated on bedding planes at the locality Birds River, which is of lacustrine origin. The other Molteno locality to have yielded statoblast is Kapokkraal, which was deposited in an abandoned channel within a braided-river system. Due to their size and shape, some Of these statoblasts can be assigned to the Family Pectinatellidae suggesting this group to be a primitive one within the order Phylactolaemata Allman 1856. Up to now, fossil statoblasts of freshwater Bryozoa have been known only from Quaternary, Oligocene, Eocene and Lower Cretaceous deposits; Since the marine orders of Bryozoa are known from the Early Palaeozoic; a much older origin of the Phylactolaemata can be suggested.