Wetheredella is a genus of calcimicrobes initially described from the Silurian of England, and subsequently reported from the Upper Ordovician to the end of the Carboniferous periods; its reefs are stated as being characteristic of the Ordovician-Silurian periods.[4] Its taxonomic position is uncertain; it has been suggested to be a foraminiferan,[6][7] a cyanobacterium[8] or simply treated as a microproblematicum;[9] Vachard & Cózar (2010) refer it to the Algospongia, a similarly controversial group that they assigned to the Protista but later, per Vachard, 2021, to Algaeincertae sedis,[10] in its own family (Wetheredellidae or Wetheredellaceae) and suborder (Wetheredellina) in the order Moravamminida (= Moravamminales).[4] The genus is named in honor of the geologist Edward Wethered.[11]
Wetheredella is characterized by calcified tubes encrusting a foreign body, with convex outer surfaces and inner surfaces coiled around the encrusted grain. Recently it has been shown that structures matching the description of Wetheredella can be produced by sectioning of Allomena, meaning that Wetheredella is possibly a junior synonym of Allomena.[12]
^Wood, Alan (1948). ""Sphaerocodium," a misinterpreted Fossil from the Wenlock limestone". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 59 (1): 9–22. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(48)80027-1.
^Loeblich Jr., Alfred R.; Tappan, Helen (1988). "Generic Taxa Erroneously Regarded as Foraminifers". Foraminiferal Genera and Their Classification. Vol. 1. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. p. 730. ISBN9781489957603. OCLC680469074. Retrieved 7 January 2019. Wetheredella Wood, 1948 ('3389A). p. 20; type species: Wetheredella silurica Wood, 1948. Alga.
^J. A. Talent. 1963. The Devonian of the Mitchell and Wentworth Rivers. Geological Survey of Victoria Memoir 24:1-118
^ abcVachard, D.; Cózar, P. (2010). "An attempt of classification of the Palaeozoic "incertae sedis" Algospongia". Revista Española de Micropaleontología. 42 (2): 129–241.
^Vachard, D. (2021). "Calcareous Algae (Rhodophyta and Chlorophyta)". In Elias, S.; Alderton, D. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Geology, Second Edition. Academic Press. pp. 389–406. ISBN9780081029091.
^Jarochowska, E; Munnecke, A. (2014). "The Paleozoic problematica Wetheredella and Allonema are two aspects of the same organism". Facies. 60 (2): 651–662. doi:10.1007/s10347-014-0399-z. S2CID129772080.