A Review of the Volutid Genera Lyria and Falsilyria (Mollusca Gastropoda) in the Tertiary of the Western Atlantic

Abstract

This report covers New World fossil species of two genera of the family Volutidae, Lyria and Falsilyria, and suggests the relationship between the genera.  The previously recorded species of Lyria s.s. include one from the Paleocene of Alabama, two from the Oligocene of Mississippi, two from the lower Miocene of Florida, and one from the upper Miocene of the Dominican Republic.  To these are added three new species:  Lyria (Lyria) inedita, from the Clayton Formation of Alabama, L. (L.) limata, from the Chipola Formation of Florida, and L. (L.) incomperta, from the Gurabo Formation of the Dominican Republic.  Two previously described species from the lower Miocene of North Carolina and Florida, respectively, are tentatively referred to the subgenus Harpeola.  In the subgenus Enaeta there are three previously known species, one each from the lower Miocene of Florida, the (?)upper Miocene of the Dominican Republic, and the (?)upper Miocene of Panama;  to these is added a fourth, L. (Enaeta) olssoni, n. sp., also from the upper Miocene of Panama. Species of the genus Falsilyria have been co nfused with those of Voluta and Lyria and are intermediate between the two. The group is confined to the western Atlantic with the known fossil species including two from the Eocene of Florida, one from the Oligocene of Florida and Georgia, two from the lower Miocene of Florida and one from the (?)upper Miocene of Anguilla, B.W.I. One new species, Falsilyria anoptos, is described from the Chipola Formation of Florida.