Bivalvia (Mollusca) from Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula

Abstract

The Upper Cretaceous-lowermost Tertiary López de Bertodano and Sobral Formations Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula, contain one of the most important marine faunas known for this interval of the Earth's history. Faunal data from this sequence are providing important new understanding of the origin and biogeographic history of the marine biota of the Southern Hemisphere and insight into the faunal transition at the end of Cretaceous time.The bivalves described herein where collected during four expeditions (1975,1982,(1983)(1984)1985) to Seymour Island. In addition, the collections made by the Swedish South Polar Expedition, 1901-1903, housed in the Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, were also examined during the course of this study. This chapter describes 13 new species and 2 genera of bivalves: Nucida (Leionucula) hunickeni n. sp., Australoneilo casei n. sp., Austrocucullaea n. gen. oliveroi n. sp., Cucullaea ellioti n. sp., Pinna freneixae n. sp., Phelopteria feldmanni n. sp., Entolium seymourensis n. sp., E. sadleri n. sp., Acesta shackletoni n. sp., A. webbi n. sp., Seymourtula n. gen. antarctica (Wilckens), Lahillia huberi n. sp., Marwickia woodburnei n. sp., Cyclorisma chaneyi n. sp., Surobula n. gen. nucleus (Wilckens), Thracia askinae n. sp. Twenty-one previously described species are redescribed and figured, and their taxonomy revised.

Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) shallow water hydrocarbon seeps from Snow Hill and Seymour Islands, James Ross Basin, Antarctica

“…At present it 587 seems unlikely that any these three taxa were seep obligates, because both 'L.' scotti (commonly) and 588 S. rossiana (rarely) occur throughout the LBF (Zinsmeister and Macellari, 1988), and the type 589 …”

High-Resolution Stable Isotope Profiles of a Dimitobelid Belemnite: Implications for Paleodepth Habitat and Late Maastrichtian Climate Seasonality

“…1). Associated fauna include serpulid worms (Rotularia), large spatulate echinoid spines (Cyathocidaris), rare crinoid ossicles, and rare corals (Doyle and Zinsmeister, 1988) but do not include abundant bivalve macrofossils that exist up section (Zinsmeister and Macellari, 1988).…”

The Cenozoic Diversity of Antarctic Bivalves Does Not Reflect Southern Ocean Environmental Changes After the Antarctic Thermal Isolation

“…In Seymour Island (Figure 1), fossils occur most abundantly at the top of the Lopez de Bertodano Formation (Zinsmeister & Macellari 1988). In upper portions of the unit, deposits exhibit a retrogradacional trend, as observed in stratigraphic section of Macellari (1988), as well as in geological descriptions of Crame et al (1991).…”

“…Table I. Family, genus and species numbers of Antarctic bivalve showed according to geological units (U) and as total numbers (T) recorded for each Cenozoic interval (data from Zinsmeister 1984, Pugaczewska 1984, Gaździcki & Pugaczewska 1984, SOMBASE, Stilwell & Zinsmeister 1987, 2000, Stilwell et al 2004, Zinsmeister & Macellari 1988, Studenka 1991, Stilwell 2000, 2002, Jonkers 2003, Anelli et al 2006). According to Table I Data from Table I was plotted in Figure 2, with the intention of evaluating the Cenozoic diversity of Antarctic bivalves.…”