Notes on the Fauna of the Chipola Formation - XXV: On the Occurence of the Genus Rothpletzia Simonelli (Mollusca:Gastropoda)

Abstract

One of the unexpected discoveries in the fauna of the Burdigalian (late lower Miocene) Chipola Formation of Calhoun Cormty, Florida, is the occurrence of a species of the hipponicid genus Rothpleztia Simonelli, 1890, originally described as R. rudista on the basis of specimens collected from Miocene (presumably Vindabonian) deposits on Gran Canaria Island. Specimens that seem certainly to be referrable to the same genus, collected from the southern part of the island of Trinidad, were subsequently described by Hodson and Harris in 1931 as representing "an Oligocene Rudistid" for which they proposed the name Neomonopleura weidenmayeri. Rutsch (1934) later synonymized Neamonopleura with Rothpletzia and reported the presence of the Trinidad form in the Antigua Limestone on the island of Antigua.