Taphonomy and systematics of a new Late Cretaceous verrucid barnacle (Cirripedia,Thoracica) from Canterbury,New Zealand

Abstract: Cirripede remains (Thoracica, Verrucomorpha), found associated with the mosasaur Prognathodon waiparaensis  Welles and Gregg, 1971 in glauconitic sands of the Late Cretaceous Conway Formation exposed along the Waipara River bank (mid‐Canterbury, New Zealand), are identified as a new species, Verruca sauria sp. nov. On the basis of taphonomy, it is deduced that these verrucids grew on a postmortem accumulation of mosasaur bones under very quiescent conditions. The current amphitropical distribution of the earliest known verrucids, i.e. V. sauria sp. nov., V. prisca  Bosquet, 1854 , V. pusilla  Bosquet, 1857 and V. tasmanica  Buckeridge, 1983 , is rationalized in the light of Tethyan palaeogeography.