Late Cretaceous and Tertiary aporrhaid gastropods from the southern rim of the Pacific Ocean

• Published in: Journal of Paleontology
• Main Authors: Zinsmeister, William J., Griffin, Miguel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1995
• Subjects: Paleontology; Pacific; New Zealand; Marwick; Antarc*; Antarctica; antarcticus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022336000035216; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022336000035216

The new subfamily Struthiopterinae is proposed for the aporrhaid gastropods occurring in the Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary Weddellian Province along the southern margin of the Pacific. The following genera are placed within the Struthiopterinae: Struthioptera Finlay and Marwick, 1937; Austroaporrhais n. gen.; and Struthiochenopus n. gen. The temporal and biogeographic distribution of members of Struthiopterinae show a similar pattern to other Southern Hemisphere groups of Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic molluscs with initial disappearance from the western Australasia of the Weddellian Province by the Paleocene while surviving in Antarctica until the late Eocene and eventually disappearing in southern South America during the early Miocene. Also included in this paper is a reappraisal of the species assignable to these genera from Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary of New Zealand, Antarctica, and southern South America together with the description of five new species. The following new species of the Struthiopterinae are described: Austroaporrhais larseni n. sp., A. stilwelli n. sp., A. dorotensis n. sp., Struthiochenopus antarcticus n. sp., and S. philippii n. sp.