Skip to content Skip to navigation

Article: Echinoderm faunas from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) of Alexander Island, Antarctica

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 55
Part: 2
Publication Date: March 2012
Page(s): 305 324
Author(s): Andrew B. Smith and Alistair Crame
Addition Information

How to Cite

SMITH, A. B., CRAME, A. 2012. Echinoderm faunas from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) of Alexander Island, Antarctica. Palaeontology55, 2, 305–324.

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library
Get Article: Wiley Online Library [Pay-to-View Access] |

Abstract

Strata assigned to the Fossil Bluff Group on Alexander Island, Antarctica, contain Aptian to Albian high-latitude echinoderm faunas that lived at palaeolatitudes greater than 60 degrees south. The Pluto Glacier Formation, of essentially Aptian age, yields a deep-water assemblage that includes two ophiuroids, an ophiacanthid and a representative of the ophiolepidid genus Mesophiomusium, both represented by partially articulated specimens. The echinoid fauna includes a new genus of diadematoid, Australidiadema, and a new genus of disasteroid, Notidisaster, which extend the record of both groups into the southern hemisphere. The overlying Neptune Glacier Formation, of late Albian age, yields only spatangoids which are common but rarely well enough preserved to be identified even to genus level, although at least some belong to the genus Hemiaster.
PalAss Go! URL: http://go.palass.org/5j1 | Twitter: Share on Twitter | Facebook: Share on Facebook | Google+: Share on Google+