Nucinella

Kaim, Andrzej, Jenkins, Robert G., Tanabe, Kazushige & Kiel, Steffen, 2014, Mollusks from late Mesozoic seep deposits, chiefly in California, Zootaxa 3861 (5), pp. 401-440 : 424

Nucinella sp.

( Fig. 11 )

Description. The largest complete specimen (CAS 73135) is 7.6 mm in height and 6.8 mm in length (we follow La Perna, 2005 for the measurement orientation for nucinellids), of truncate nucinellid shape, and has a row of thick taxodont teeth below the pointed umbo.

Material and occurrence. Five specimens from Eagle Creek (Late Barremian, Early Cretaceous).

Remarks. Chemosymbiosis has recently been documented for Nucinella ( Oliver & Taylor 2012) . Nucinellids are rare at fossil seep deposit but have a long geologic history in these habitats, with occurrences in the Late Triassic of Oregon ( Peckmann et al. 2011), the Early Cretaceous of Svalbard ( Hammer et al. 2011), and the Late Cretaceous and early Oligocene of Japan ( Amano et al. 2007, 2013; Kiel et al. 2008a).

Figures

FIGURE 11. Nucinella sp. from Late Barremian (Early Cretaceous) seep site at Eagle Creek, Shasta County, California, USA. A-C Lateral and dorsal view of CAS 73135. D, E. Views of lateral aspect (D) and hinge area (E) of CAS 73136. E. Specimen displaying taxodont teeth below umbo.