New species of the austral bryozoan genusTaylorusnom. nov. (Escharinidae): phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographical implications

The cheilostome bryozoan genusTayloriusGordon, 2014 comprises six named living and fossil species from New Zealand and one Recent species from South Africa.Taylorusnom. nov. is proposed as a replacement name forTayloriusGordon, 2014 (Bryozoa), a secondary homonym ofTayloriusBritton,1960(Arthropoda: Coleoptera). Here, we describeTaylorus patagonicussp. nov. from the early Miocene of Argentine Patagonia, and two new living species from New Zealand,Taylorus microperforatussp. nov. andTaylorus alatussp. nov. These new finds extend the known range ofTaylorusnom. nov. to areas formerly comprising the Gondwanan supercontinent. Cladistic analysis suggests that there is a basal divergence withinTaylorusnom. nov. in which an extant lineage consisting of species from South Africa and New Zealand is the sister group to the remaining species. Two New Zealand fossil taxa,T. masoniandT. waiparaensis, were not recovered in an exclusively Zealandian clade. The early Miocene New Zealand speciesT. masoninested with three Recent Zealandian species, this subclade being sister to a group comprising the remaining New Zealand species and that from Patagonia. These different lineages suggest thatTaylorusnom. nov. originated in the Paleogene, perhaps in the early Oligocene or late Eocene.