Paleontological notes on the Castlecliffian Te Piki Bed, with descriptions of new Molluscan taxa

Abstract

Study of Jarge collections has enabled reassessment of the fauna of the Te Piki Bed, of mid Pleistocene Castlecliffian age, from near Cape Runaway. Descriptions of 13 new species and one new subspecies of gastropod and a new species of the chiton Cryptoconchus are presented; Nozeba mica Finlay 1930, Sigapatella inflata (Hutton 1883), Penion editus (Powell 1934), Buccinulum (Evamula) gracillimum Powell 1934, and Chemnitzia kingi Laws 1937 are suppressed as junior synonyms; a brachio-pod, two bivalve species and eight species of gastropod are recorded fossil for the first time; and in a discussion of certain rissoacean groups the genera Austrorissopsis Ponder 1965, Fictonoba Ponder 1967, Microdryas Laseron 1950, and Nanadoma Laseron 1956, as well as the cerithiacean Joculator Hedley 1909, are seen to be represented in the New Zealand fossil fauna, and Epigrus Hedley 1903 is removed from the list of neozelanic genera. Taxonomic notes are provided on various other taxa, including accounts of intraspecific variation in three species of Acteonidae and Odostomia turneri.