On the Occurrence of the Caribbean Species Haustellum Chrysostoma (Gastropoda: Muricidae) in the Pliocene of Western Ecuador

Abstract

A reconnaissance trip along the coast of western Ecuador to the south of the city of Bahia de Caráquez, Manabi Province (text-fig. 1), proved to be unproductive from the perspective of fossil mollusks. The sea cliffs are very impressive (text-fig. 2), with magnificent exposures accessible at low tide by driving along the beach. Although Bristow (1976, p. 1981 lists about two dozen species of mollusks from the "Borbón Formation," in the "coast section south of Bahia," we were unable to find his locality. There was a single thin lens exposed, which yielded a few poorly preserved shells and this may be his locality, now weathered and essentially gone. Or, he may have collected somewhere farther down the beach than we went. In any case, in spite of closely examining the cliffs for several kilometers to the south of Bahia, we saw only one fossiliferous lens.