A New Species of Dicathais (Gastropoda:Muricidae) From the Pliocene Tamiami Formation of Southern Florida

Abstract

Dicathais, a thaidine gastropod genus presently restricted to the Recent of Australia, New Zealand, Norfolk, Lord Howe, and Kermadec Islands (Phillips et al., 1973), is herein reported from the Pliocene Tamiami Formation of southern Florida. Dicathais handgenae, n. sp., represents the first record of the genus outside Australasia and only the second known fossil occurrence of the genus. Suter (1913) and Beu and Maxwell (1990) have listed Thais orbita (Gmelin, 1791), the type species of Dicathais, as ranging from early Pliocene to Recent in New Zealand. To date, no other references to fossil Dicathais have been found.