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Late Miocene Asterozoans (Echinodermata) in the James Ross Island Volcanic Group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2006

Mark Williams ,
John L. Smellie ,
Joanne S. Johnson  and
Daniel B. Blake
Mark Williams
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
John L. Smellie
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Joanne S. Johnson
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Daniel B. Blake
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 245 NHB, 1301 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
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Abstract

Asterozoans (Echinodermata) of Late Miocene age (6.02 ± 0.12 Ma) are preserved as external moulds in water-lain tuffs of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group (JRIVG), James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula. The asterozoans are complete, and appear to represent specimens suffocated after having been pinioned by rapid sedimentation on the distal fringe of an erupting sub-aqueous tuff cone. Although the coarse nature of the host sediments has obliterated the fine morphological detail of the specimens, at least one suggests evidence of entrainment by a turbidity current. A second shows evidence of detachment of the distal tip of one of its arms. In addition to fossil discoveries from glaciomarine sediments, the volcanic tuffs of the JRIVG represent a new source of fossil data that can be used to interpret the ecology and environment of the Antarctic marine shelf biota during the Neogene.

Keywords

fossil asterozoansJames Ross Island Volcanic GroupLate Miocenevolcanic tuffs
Type
EARTH SCIENCES
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 117 - 122
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2006

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