Protelminius

Buckeridge, John S. & Newman, William A., 2010, A review of the subfamily Eliminiinae (Cirripedia: Thoracica: Austrobalanidae), including a new genus, Protelminius nov., from the Oligocene of New Zealand, Zootaxa 2349, pp. 39-54 : 46

Genus Protelminius nov.

Diagnosis: Four-plated elminiine with moderately thin-walled parietes, internally with weak longitudinal ribs, radii narrow; scutum with articular ridge low, rounded, not dependant basally; adductor ridge very weak, tergum with spur removed from basi-rostral angle.

Distribution and age: Littoral. Upper Oligocene: South Island, New Zealand.

Type: Elminius (Elminius) pomahakensis Buckeridge, 1984: 217 . Late Oligocene.

Remarks: This material clearly does not conform to either extant elminiine genera or to † Matellionius from Victoria. The presence of weak internal ribbing on the paries and the slightly more thickened parietes is considered pleisiomorphic within the Elminiinae . A feature such as the separation of the tergal spur from the basi-rostral angle may also be so, although the latter feature is a character of Elminius s.s.

† Protelminius is currently known only from the late Oligocene of New Zealand. The poor fossil record is, in part, a reflection of barnacle size and rapidity of disarticulation of the fragile shell upon death; but may also result from the inter-tidal habit, which was in a sheltered environment where intense bioturbation was likely to accentuate shell fragmentation and dissolution ( Buckeridge, 1984). Proposing another monotypic genus was not taken lightly; it was made in the knowledge that many genera, e.g. † Eolasma , Neolepas , Tetrachaelasma and Waikalasma , were initially described as monotypic, but are now species rich.

Etymology: Proto (Greek, “early”) + Elminius .