Thought there might be an interest.
John

John & Cheryl Jacobs
Seffner, FL
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew K. Rindsberg <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 23, 1999 9:20 AM
Subject: mollusca Lower Devonian bivalves of New Zealand


The following message was posted by John Laurie ([log in to unmask])
on the PaleoNet listserver. Of particular interest to taxonomists is the
erection of a new family, Nuculitidae.

Andrew K. Rindsberg, Geological Survey of Alabama
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Palaeonetters,

The following monograph has recently been published and copies are
available
from:

The Business Manager,
Geological Society of Australia, Inc.
Suite 706
301 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA

Tel: (02) 9290 2194
Fax: (02) 9290 2198
E-mail: [log in to unmask]


LOWER DEVONIAN BIVALVES FROM THE REEFTON GROUP, NEW ZEALAND

MARGARET A. BRADSHAW

BRADSHAW, M.A., 1999:05:17. Lower Devonian bivalves from the Reefton Group,
New Zealand. Memoir of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 20,
1-171, ISSN 0810-8889

Abstract: Mudstones and sandstones in the Reefton Group of the Inangahua
and
Waitahu Outliers near Reefton have yielded a rich bivalve fauna comprising
27 genera and 46 species. The bivalves form a significant component of
thin,
death-assemblage shell beds in the Bolitho and Adam Mudstones, where
detailed internal shell features are particularly well preserved. A wide
size range in some shell beds allows ontogenetic studies to be made.
Bivalves occur more sparsely in the grey, non-calcareous mudstones
separating shell bands where thinner shelled, articulated individuals are
more common. The environment of deposition for the mudstones is considered
to be a low energy offshore shelf, sporadically affected by higher energy
storm events that caused mass mortality, disarticulation and accumulation
of
shell beds. In addition to bivalves, these beds contain a rich shelly fauna
of orthoconic nautiloids, gastropods, bellerophontids, brachiopods and
echinoderms. Varying degrees of bioerosion or encrustation suggest that
some
shells may have been exhumed and reburied several times.

The mudstone shell beds contain a large number of infaunal palaeotaxodont
bivalves, (largely Notonucula, Phestia, subsidiary Ctenodontella,
Paleyoldia
and Nuculites). Epibyssate pteriomorphs, especially Cornellites, are
common,
with scarcer Lyriopecten and Pterinopecten. Of the anomalodesmatids,
Paleodora is particularly common, with scarcer Modiomorpha and Nargunella.

Bivalves in the mudstone formations form the Cypricardinia Assemblage, the
Notonucula/Phestia Assemblage, and the Glossites/orthocone Assemblage.
Paleodora angulata occurs only in the Adam Mudstone, and Cypricardinia
crenistra only in the Bolitho Mudstone.

A different fauna of bivalves, accompanied prolifically by other molluscs,
occurs in sandstones of the Murray Creek Formation at the base of the
Reefton Group in the Inangahua Outlier (Notonucula, Phestia, Nuculites,
Nuculodonta, Leptodesma [Leiopteria], forming the Leiopteria/Loxonema
Assemblage). In a mudstone in the same formation the pteriomorph
Glyptodesma
belongs to the Glyptodesma/Allanetes Assemblage.

There appears to be little similarity to the Lower Devonian bivalve faunas
of the Baton River area of New Zealand, but a slight link with the Old
World
Realm faunas of the Tasman Subprovince of eastern Australian through
Nargunella cf. nitida and Cypricardinia crenistra. On a generic level,
there
is some affinity with the Malvinokaffric Realm influenced faunas of
Antarctica through Notonucula, Prothyris and Obrimia, and Modiomorpha cf.
herculi. A tenuous link with the Malvinokaffric fauna of South America is
also suggested by the presence of Nuculites argentinum in both Argentina
and
New Zealand, and what on closer inspection may prove to be Ctenodontella
gagei in Argentina. Nuculodonta is presently known elsewhere only in
Sweden.
Paleodora is endemic to New Zealand, as are the majority of new species and
certain brachiopods, and a Lower Devonian New Zealand Subprovince is
likely.

New taxa are: Family Nuculitidae, Notonucula talenti, N. madida, N.
subcircularis, N. orilla, Ctenodontella gagei, Nuculites primus, N.
stonyensis, Paleyoldia devonica, Phestia ranfti, P. ranfti lagea, P.
hegani,
P. suggatei, P. pluvia, P. arenacea, Cornellites flemingi, C. johnstoni,
Leptodesma (Leiopteria) pojetai, Glyptodesma allani, Modiomorpha kaka,
Paleodora angulata and Palaeosolen miro.