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

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.     

THE OCCURRENCE OF THE UPPER JURASSIC BIVALVE MALAYOMAORICA MALAYOMAORICA (KRUMBECK) ON THE ORVILLE COAST, ANTARCTICA

Malayomaorica malayomaorica is an important Upper Jurassic bivalvein the southern hemisphere: widely distributed in strata ofEarly - Middle Kimmeridgian age, it is a zone fossil of considerablepotential for regional biostratigraphic correlations. Its commonoccurrence in the Latady Formation of the Orville Coast, Antarctica,indicates that at least part of this stratigraphic unit hasa Kimmeridgian age. Although its precise taxonomic status remainsin some doubt, it would appear to be the earliest buchiid-likebivalve so far recorded from the southern hemisphere. Its verywide distribution around the margins of Gondwana is similarto that established for species of the Late Jurassic bivalvegenera Retroceramus, Buchia and Anopaea (Received 13 April 1981;     

THE OCCURRENCE OF ANOPAEA (BIVALVIA : INOCERAMIDAE) IN THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA

The genus Anopaea represents a small but distinctive group ofinoceramid bivalves that apparently remained functionally endobyssate.The somewhat unusual morphology (for an inoceramid) probablyresults from structural modifications tofacilitate sedimentpenetration at a high angle and anchorage by an antero-ventralbyssus. Although never as common as thecontemporary genera Retroceramusand Inoceramus, Anopaea is now known from temperate bivalveassemblages in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Itpersisted from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) to the Early Cretaceous(Neocomian), and possibly even later. (Received 26 June 1980;