Molluscan Research 26(2):
84-88; published 15 September 2006
Copyright © The
Malacological Society of Australasia
A new fossil non-marine snail
(Gastropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian,
Griman Creek Formation) of
eastern Australia
ROBERT J. HAMILTON-BRUCE
1,3 AND BENJAMIN P. KEAR 1,2
1 South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia.
2 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide,
Adelaide SA 5006, Australia.
3 To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: hamilton-bruce.robert@saugov.sa.gov.au
Abstract
A new genus and species of
fossil non-marine gastropod, Fretacaeles
gautae, is described from the
Lower Cretaceous (middle-Upper Albian)
opal-bearing rocks of the Griman Creek Formation at Lightning Ridge,
northern New South Wales, Australia. The
taxon is difficult to place at family level but shares morphological
(including conical, globose shell with large aperture [lacking
apertural teeth], inflated last whorl, and distinct shouldering),
morphometric, and ecological (predominantly estuarine palaeohabitat)
characteristics with fossil and living viviparid taxa. Fretacaeles
gautae possesses a mosaic of
features variably developed in other
viviparid genera: relatively high spire, steeply inclined (weakly
stepped) shoulders, impressed whorls, reduced
ornamentation, and aperture with length greater than width. The
significance of F. gautae,
as a new member of Australia’s Early
Cretaceous non-marine gastropod assemblage, is discussed.
Full article (PDF;
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