Two New Species of Muricinae from the Cretaceous and Paleocene of the Gulf Costal Plain, With Comments on the Genus Odontopolys Gabb. 1860

Abstract

Two new species of muricid gastropods are described: Poirieria (Paziella) cretacea, from the Kemp Clay (Cretaceous: Maastrichtian) in Texas, and Pterynotus (Pterynotus) aurorae, from the Bells Landing Marl Member of the Tuscahoma Formation (Paleocene) of Alabama. The new species of Poirieria is the first reported occurrence of a muricine to be discovered in the Cretaceous of the New World and only the second worldwide . The previously known species from Saxony, eastern Germany, is a secondary homonym and is renamed Poirieria (?Paziella) cenomae herein. Examination of the type species of the genus Odontopolys Gabb, 1860, indicates its relationship to the genus Vitularia.