The Family Cancellariidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in the Neogene of the Bocas Del Toro Region, Panama, with the description of seven new species

Abstract

<jats:p>Twenty four species of Cancellariidae belonging to eleven genera occurring in the Neogene Bocas del Toro assemblages, Caribbean Panama, are discussed and figured. The following seven species are described as new:<jats:italic>Cancellaria pilula</jats:italic>n. sp.,<jats:italic>Cancellaria isabelae</jats:italic>n. sp.,<jats:italic>Cancellaria stri</jats:italic>n. sp.,<jats:italic>Cancellaria axelolssoni</jats:italic>n. sp.,<jats:italic>Massyla corpulenta</jats:italic>n. sp.,<jats:italic>Aphera trophis</jats:italic>n. sp.,<jats:italic>Admetula valientensis</jats:italic>n. sp. The cancellarid genus<jats:italic>Charcolleria</jats:italic>Olsson, 1942 is considered a synonym of<jats:italic>Massyla</jats:italic>H. Adams and A. Adams, 1854. Of the 24 species present in the Bocas del Toro, 12 are known also to occur elsewhere in the tropical American Neogene. This level of endemism is high, but not as high as that reported from other Tropical American Neogene assemblages, probably due to the very central geographic location within the Gatunian Province of the Bocas assemblages.</jats:p>

New Cancellariidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda) From the Miocene Gatun Formation of Panama, With Eleven New Species

“…The specific abundance and generic composition of the Gatun fauna is again comparable to that found in the Bocas de Toro area of Panama and other tropical American Neogene assemblages, and is far more diverse than that found in the Caribbean today, whilst the American Tropical Pacific maintains its high diversity (see Landau et al, 2012).…”

“…The cancellarids of the Gatun Formation show a high level of endemism, with 18 species (60 percent) found only in the Gatun assemblages. This figure is lower than that for the Neogene of the Dominican Republic, where Jung and Petit (1990) recorded only one of the twenty species occurring outside the Dominican Republic, but significantly higher than the 37.5 percent endemism found in the Neogene Bocas del Toro assemblages of Panama by Landau et al (2012). Landau et al (2012) discussed the importance of cancellariids as a typical group of paciphilic gastropods, paciphiles being groups that disappeared from the Caribbean during or after the closure of the Central American Seaway, but are still present on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama.…”

“…This figure is lower than that for the Neogene of the Dominican Republic, where Jung and Petit (1990) recorded only one of the twenty species occurring outside the Dominican Republic, but significantly higher than the 37.5 percent endemism found in the Neogene Bocas del Toro assemblages of Panama by Landau et al (2012). Landau et al (2012) discussed the importance of cancellariids as a typical group of paciphilic gastropods, paciphiles being groups that disappeared from the Caribbean during or after the closure of the Central American Seaway, but are still present on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. These groups therefore underwent a range contraction following the uplift of the Isthmus of Panama, becoming restricted to the Pacific side of their original wider distribution in the Neogene, which was throughout the Gatunian Paleobiogeographic province (see Vermeij and Petuch, 1986;Landau et al, 2008).…”

“…Our knowledge of the Caribbean Neogene cancellarids has increased enormously in the last 20 years following the publication of several papers dealing exclusively with this family in the Dominican Republic (Jung and Petit, 1990), Venezuela (Landau and Petit, 1997;Landau et al, 2007) and the Bocas del Toro Region of Panama (Landau et al, 2012).…”

“…This second paper dealing specifically with the Neogene Cancellariidae of Panama (see Landau et al, 2012) is again facilitated by the huge effort and research which has gone into the Neogene stratigraphy of the region as part of the PPP, Panama Paleontology Project (Collins and Coates, 1999). Two main areas were sampled: exposures between Sabanita and Cativa along the Boyd-Roosevelt Highway ( Fig.…”