New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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KERMADEC ISLAND GIANT LIMPET OCCURRING FOSSIL IN NEW ZEALAND, AND RELICT DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE TROPICS

C. A. Fleming

New Zealand Geological Survey, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Lower Hutt

Abstract A large fossil limpet from the Isolated Hill Limestone (Oligocene) of Mason River, Marlborough, is described as Patella (Scutellastra) kermadecensis aurorae n. subsp., a subspecies of the living Kermadec giant limpet. Thus this limpet is not a primary endemic species at the Kermadec Islands, but a surviving relict population of a species formerly more widespread during the Tertiary. Such relict populations in the Indo-West Pacific imply that the tropics were not immune from the effects of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations.

N.Z. Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 7 (1 & 2) : 159-64
(Received for publication 2 August 1972)

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1269K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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