GEOGRAPHICAL AND STRATIGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE ECHINOID ECHINOMETRA MATHAEI (BLAINVILLE) IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract - The distnbution of the camarodont echinoid Echinometra mathaei (Blainville. 1825) in Western Australia is discussed. Being restricted to inhabiting intertidal reef platforms. the species does not lend itself to being readily fossilised. However. its discovery in a Late Pleistocene reef limestone at Cape Burney. south of the mouth of the Greenough River. provides the first geological record of the species In Australia. The stratigraphic record of this widespread Indo-West Pacific species suggests that like a number of other echinoids, it has undergone an easterly spread across the Indian Ocean during the Neogene and probably reached south-west Australia during the Pleistocene following the initiation of the warm water Leeuwin Current.