New gastropods from the Jurassic of Orville Coast, eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica

Abstract

The Latady Group (southern Antarctic Peninsula) hosts the most diverse assemblage of Jurassic molluscs from this continent. A new gastropod mollusc, Silberlingiella latadyensis sp. nov. and three forms assigned to Rissoidae, Pseudomelaniidae and Bullinidae from the Middle-Late Jurassic, Bathonian–Kimmeridgian Hauberg Mountains Formation, Ellsworth Land, Antarctic Peninsula are described here. Silberlingiella is transferred to Eustomatidae and is the first confirmed record of this family in the Southern Hemisphere, indicating a much more widespread Jurassic distribution. The Triassic and Jurassic species of Silberlingiella are compared with the coeval European genus Diatinostoma. Eustomatidae is proposed as an ancestral group for Potamididae and Batillariidae. The composition of the gastropod association described herein differs markedly from the only other Antarctic Jurassic fauna from Alexander Island.