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Abstracts 23rd LAK, 2014, Heidelberg

POSTER 170: CRETACEOUS APORRHAIDAE (GASTROPODA) FROM THE SERGIPE

BASIN, NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL
Manuela Lexen and Peter Bengtson
Institut fr Geowissenschaften, Universitt Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 234, 69120 Heidelberg, Deutschland.
manuela.lexen@geow.uni-heidelberg.de

The CenomanianConiacian Cotinguiba Formation of the Sergipe Basin in northeastern

Brazil contains a rich fauna of gastropods and other molluscs. The basin is one of the numerous
continental margin basins formed in the late Mesozoic by rifting and separation of the South
American and African continents. The marine sedimentary fill of the basin ranges from the Aptian
to the Miocene. The extensively exposed Cretaceous part of the succession is composed of
highly fossiliferous, predominantly shallow-water carbonates and mudstones, which represent
one of the most complete Cretaceous successions of the South Atlantic region.
The gastropod fauna of the Cotinguiba Formation is dominated by the family Aporrhaidae,
represented by the genera Aporrhais (45% of the specimens), Anchura (22%), Piestochilus
(18%) and Drepanocheilus (15%). Because of the generally poor preservation as internal
moulds lacking diagnostic characters, the majority of the taxa are left in open nomenclature.
Seven species have been identified: Aporrhais? dutrugei? (Coquand, 1862), Aporrhais? sp.,
Drepanocheilus? sp. A, Drepanocheilus? sp.B, Piestochilus? (Cryptorhytis?) bleicheri (Thomas
and Peron in Peron, 1889), Piestochilus? (Cryptorhytis?) sp. and Anchura? sp. This fauna is
similar to coeval Tethyan faunas of the Middle East, North Africa and northern South America
(Lexen 2013). The study is based on the collections of P. and S.I. Bengtson from 19711972
(Bengtson 1983) and additional material collected by P. Bengtson from 1977 onwards.
Bengtson, P. 1983. The CenomanianConiacian of the Sergipe Basin, Brazil. Fossils and Strata 12, 178.
Coquand, H. 1862. Gologie et palontologie de la rgion Sud de la province de Constantine. Mmoires de la Societe
dmulation de la Provence 2, 1341.
Lexen, M. 2013. CenomanianTuronian (Upper Cretaceous) gastropods from the Sergipe Basin, north-eastern Brazil.
165 pp. Unpublished PhD thesis, Universitt Heidelberg.
Peron, A. 1889. Description des mollusques fossiles des terrains crtacs de la rgion Sud des hauts-plateaux de la
Tunisie, recueillies en 1885 et 1886 par M. Philippe Thomas. Premire partie, xii + 327 pp. Paris.