Atresius liratus Gabb, 1869

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 : 421

Atresius liratus Gabb, 1869

( Fig. 8 D, I)

Material and occurrence. Many specimens from Rocky Creek (probably Valanginian, Early Cretaceous) including single moderately well preserved juvenile shell (GZG.INV.84993).

Remarks. Atresius liratus has been of uncertain taxonomic position so far (see Kiel et al. 2008b for a review). The extraordinarily similar shell morphology of this species to the Recent bone eating abyssochrysoid Rubyspira osteovora Johnson et al. 2010 led to a suggestion that they may be related ( Johnson et al. 2010). Indeed, even the juvenile shells are somewhat similar, although the juvenile shell of A. liratus is most reminiscent of the coeval Paskentana humerosa (compare Fig. 8 D, I and 8E, J herein). Therefore, we consider Atresius to be a member of the newly established family Paskentanidae fam. nov. Clarifying the relation between Atresius (and Paskentanidae) and Rubyspira requires further research and collection effort.

Figures

FIGURE 8. A – C, E, J. Paskentana humerosa (Stanton, 1895) from Valanginian (Early Cretaceous) seep carbonates at Bear Creek, Colusa County, California, USA. A. GZG. INV. 84987. B. GZG. INV. 84988. C. GZG. INV. 84989. E, J. Juvenile GZG. INV. 84990. D, I. Atresius liratus Gabb, 1869 from? Valanginian (Early Cretaceous) seep carbonates at Rocky Creek, Lake County, California, USA; juvenile GZG. INV. 84993. F – G. Paskentana hamiltonensis sp. nov. from from Valanginian (Early Cretaceous) seep carbonates at Bear Creek, Colusa County, California, USA. F. Paratype (GZG. INV. 84992). G. Holotype (GZG. INV. 84991). H. Paskentana globosa Kiel et al., 2008 from Tithonian (Late Jurassic) seep carbonates at Paskenta, Tehama County, California, USA; GZG. INV. 84986.