Original paper
The allegedly Late Cretaceous Chthamalus darwini Bosquet, 1857: a junior synonym of extant Chthamalus stellatus (Poli, 1791) (Cirripedia, Balanomorpha, Chthamalidae)
Jagt, John W.M.; Carriol, René-Pierre
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen Band 249 Heft 1 (2008), p. 87 - 92
published: Jul 11, 2008
DOI: 10.1127/0077-7749/2008/0249-0087
ArtNo. ESP155024901006, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The type specimen of the allegedly Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Chthamalus darwini Bosquet, 1857 from the Schneeberg, northwest of Aachen (Germany), is reevaluated and redescribed. Opinions expressed by previous authors, including Bosquet himself (between 1860 and 1863), that this did not actually represent a latest Cretaceous fossil taxon, but an extant species which must have found its way to the Schneeberg as kitchen waste, are corroborated. In fact, we hold it to be conspecific with C. stellatus (Poli, 1791), a widely distributed species on the coasts of the Atlantic and in the English Channel, the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Thus, the genus Chthamalus, and the species C. darwini, can be struck definitively from the list of Late Cretaceous cirripede taxa occurring in the Aachen area. The only sessile cirripedes found here in situ in Upper Cretaceous strata are verrucomorphans (verrucids, proverrucids) and brachylepadomorphs (brachylepadids).
Keywords
cirripedia • balanomorpha • chthamalus • synonymy • late cretaceous • recent