PLIO-PLEISTOCENE PERONELLA (ECHINOIDEA CLYPEASTEROIDA) FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract - Three species of the laganid clypeasteroid Peronella are described from sediments of Pliocene and Pleistocene age in the Carnarvon, Perth and Eucla Basins in Western Australia. The oldest is Peronella ova sp. nov. from the Pliocene Roe Calcarenite of the Eucla Basin. Laganum decagonale rictum Gregory, 1892, is redescribed, elevated to specific status and placed in the genus Peronella. Peronella ricta appears to be restricted to the basal part of the Carbla Oolite, a Middle Pleistocene formation in the Carnarvon Basin outcropping around Shark Bay. Late Pleistocene sediments in the Shark Bay region contain the still extant species P. orbicularis. The living species P. lesueuri is recorded from Holocene sediments in the Perth Basin. A key to fossil Peronella in Western Australia permits differentiation of the four known species by reference to test length, test thickness and petal length. The genus is of only limited biostratigraphical utility in the late Cenozoic of this region.

Author(s) MCNAMARA, KENNETH J. : Part 2
Page Number
193