Revision of the ostracod genus Velibeyrichia Henningsmoen, 1954 from the Silurian and Lower Devonian of North America

Known occurrences of the ostracod genus Velibeyrichia are restricted to a number of Silurian to Lower Devonian geological strata in North America: the McKenzie Member of the Mifflintown Formation of Maryland and West Virginia; the Tonoloway Limestone of Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania; the Bloomsburg Formation of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania; the Manlius Limestone of New York; and the Decker Limestone of New Jersey and New York. The genus includes six species: V. moodeyi (type species), V. mesleri, V. paucigranulosa, V. reticulosaccula, V. tonolowayensis and V. tricornia. The diagnostic combination of characters for this genus are: distinct deflection of the velum where it crosses the crumina in heteromorphs (adult female specimens), dorsal nodes on lobes L1 and L3, sexual dimorphism of the velum, and in tecnomorph specimens, either a shallow sulcus on lobe L3 or a zygal ridge (in adult tecnomorph specimens) extending from lobe L2 to lobe L3. The presence of one or the other of the latter two characters defines two distinct species groups.