Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T15:15:50.101Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Eocene articulated Polyplacophora (Mollusca) from the La Meseta Formation, Antarctica and the stratigraphy of the fossil-bearing strata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Maria Isabel López Cabrera  and
Eduardo B. Olivero
Maria Isabel López Cabrera
Affiliation:
Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas, Bernardo A. Houssay 200, Ushuaia 9410, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina,
Eduardo B. Olivero
Affiliation:
Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas, Bernardo A. Houssay 200, Ushuaia 9410, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An exceptionally well-preserved specimen of Leptochiton sp. attached to a brachiopod valve is described from the early Eocene beds of the La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island. It records the first fossil Polyplacophora from Antarctica. The small specimen has eight imbricating valves, rounded lateral margins, ribs of fine granules, and growth marks in all valves. It strongly resembles extant Antarctic and South American species of Leptochiton Gray. The record of articulate valves in fossil Polyplacophora is rare and requires exceptional preservational conditions. Leptochiton sp. is associated with well preserved bryozoans, brachiopods, asterozoan echinoids, and serpulids, among other organisms that inhabited hard substrates in normal marine conditions, and probably lived attached to the side walls of an incised valley eroded in Cretaceous sediments. The well-preserved fossils were probably removed from their attachment site during storm events and, after a short transportation, rapidly buried within the early Eocene valley-fill deposits. The fossil-bearing beds are included in the Telm 2 or Acantilados Allomember of the La Meseta Formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 85 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 970 - 976
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bitner, M. A. 1996. Brachiopods from the Eocene La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, p. 65–100. In Gaździcki, A., (ed.), Paleontological results of the Polish Antarctic Expeditions. Part. II. Palaeontologia Polonica 55.Google Scholar
Blake, D. B. and Zinsmeister, W. J. 1988. Eocene asteroids (Equinodermata) from Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, p. 489–498. In Feldmann, R. M. and Woodburne, M. O. (eds.), Geology and Paleontology of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Geological Society of America Memoir, 169.Google Scholar
Castellanos, Z. J. A. 1988. Catálogo Descriptivo de la Malacofauna Marina Magallánica I. Los Placoforos (Mollusca-Placophora). Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas, La Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires, 41 p.Google Scholar
Cocozza, C. D. and Clarke, C. M. 1992. Eocene microplancton from La Meseta Formation, northern Seymour Island. Antarctic Science, 4: 355–362.Google Scholar
Dell'Angelo, B., Gallorini, H., and Taviani, M. 2003. First Neogene record of an articulated polyplacophoran. Journal of Paleontology, 77: 1193–1194.Google Scholar
Elliot, D. H. and Trautman, T. 1982. Lower Tertiary strata on Seymour Island. Antarctic Peninsula, p. 287–297. In Craddock, C. (ed.), Antarctic Geocience. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Gray, J. E. 1847. A list of the genera of recent Mollusca, their synonyms and types. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 15: 129–206.Google Scholar
Hara, U. 2001. Bryozoans from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, p. 33–155. In Gaździcki, A., (ed.), Paleontological results of the Polish Antarctic Expeditions. Part. III. Palaeontologia Polonica 60.Google Scholar
Itoigawa, J., Nishimoto, H., and Tomida, S. 1977. Lepidopleurus morozakiensis, a new fossil Polyplacophora from the Miocene Morozaki group, central Japan. Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum, 4: 55–59.Google Scholar
Ivany, L. C., Portell, R. W., and Jones, D. S. 1990. Animal-plant relationships and Paleobiogeography of an Eocene Seagrass community from Florida. Palaios, 5: 244–258.Google Scholar
Ivany, L. C., Lohmann, K. C., Hasiuk, F., Blake, D. B., Glass, A., Aronson, R. B., and Moody, R. M. 2008. Eocene climate record of high southern latitude continental shelf: Seymour Island, Antarctica. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 120: 659–678.Google Scholar
James, U. P. 1879. Description of new species of fossils and remarks on some others, from the Lower and Upper Silurian rocks of Ohio. Palaeontologist, 3: 17–24.Google Scholar
Kaas, P. and van Belle, A. 1985. Monograph of Living Chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora). Vol. 1. Order Neoloricata: Lepidopleurina. E. J. Brill/W. Backhuys, Leiden, 240 p.Google Scholar
Marenssi, S. M. 2006. Eustatically controlled sedimentation recorded by Eocene strata of James Ross Basin, Antarctica, p. 125–133. In Francis, J. E., Pirrie, D. and Crames, J. A. (eds.), Cretaceous-Tertiary High-Latitude Palaeoenvironments, James Ross Basin, Antarctica. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 258.Google Scholar
Marenssi, S. M., Net, L. I., and Santillana, S. N. 2002. Provenance, environmental and paleogeographic controls on sandstone composition in an incised-valley system: the Eocene La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctica. Sedimentary Geology, 150: 301–321.Google Scholar
Marenssi, S. M., Santillana, S. N., Rinaldi, C. A. 1998. Stratigraphy of the La Meseta Formation (Eocene), Marambio (Seymour) Island, Antarctica, p. 137–146. In Paleógeno de América del Sur y de la Península Antàrtica. Asociación Paleontológica Argentina, Publicación Especial, 5.Google Scholar
McCoy, F. 1850. On some genera and species of Silurian Radiata in the collection of the University of Cambridge. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 6: 270–290.Google Scholar
Porebski, S. J. 2000. Shelf-valley compound fill produced by fault subsidence and eustatic sea-level changes, Eocene La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctica. Geology, 28: 147–150.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puchalski, S. S., Eernisse, D. J., and Johnson, C. C. 2008. The effect of sampling bias on the fossil record of chitons (Mollusca, Polyplacophora). American Malacological Bulletin, 25: 87–95.Google Scholar
Sadler, P. M. 1988. Geometry and stratification of uppermost Cretaceous and Paleogene units on Seymour Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula, p. 489–498. In Feldmann, R. M. and Woodburne, M. O. (eds.), Geology and Paleontology of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Geological Society of America Memoir, 169.Google Scholar
Schwabe, E. 2008. A summary of reports of abyssal and hadal Monoplacophora and Polyplacophora (Mollusca). Zootaxa, 1866: 205–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwabe, E., Försterra, G., Häussermann, V., Melzer, R. R., and Schrödl, M. 2006. Chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) from the southern Chilean Comau Fjord, with reinstatement of Tonicia calbucensis Plate, 1897. Zootaxa, 1341: 1–27.Google Scholar
Schwabe, E. and Sellanes, J., 2010. Revision of Chilean bathyal chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) associated with cold-seeps, including description of a new species of Leptochiton (Leptochitonidae). Organisms Diversity and Evolution, 10: 31–55.Google Scholar
Sirenko, B. 2006a. New outlook on the system of chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora). Venus, 65: 27–49.Google Scholar
Sirenko, B. 2006b. Report on the present state of our knowledge with regard to the chitons (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) of the Magellan Strait and Falkland Islands. Venus, 65: 81–89.Google Scholar
Squires, R. L. and Goedert, J. L. 1995. An extant species of Leptochiton (Mollusca: Polyplacophora) in Eocene and Oligocene Cold-Seep limestones, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. The Veliger, 38: 47–53.Google Scholar
Stilwell, J. D. and Zinsmeister, W. J. 1992. Molluscan Systematics and Biostratigraphy, Lower Tertiary La Meseta Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. American Geophysical Union, Antarctic Research Series 55, 192 p.Google Scholar
Strack, H. L. 2003. Leptochiton denhartogi, a new species of Polyplacophora (Mollusca) from Angola. JournalZoologische Verhandelingen, 345: 409–412.Google Scholar
Wrenn, J. H. and Hart, G. F. 1988. Paleogene dinoflagellated cyst biostratigraphy of Seymour Island, Antarctica, p. 321–447. In Feldmann, R. M. and Woodburne, M. O. (eds.), Geology and Paleontology of Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Geological Society of America Memoir, 169.Google Scholar