Earliest records of Ellerbeckia and Paralia from Cretaceous deposits: a description of three species, two of which are new

Abstract

Three species of diatoms, Ellerbeckia cretacea (Jousé) Sims & Crawford, Ellerbeckia radialis Crawford & Sims and Paralia gongylodes Sims & Crawford are described from Cretaceous marine sediments. These are among the earliest records of two genera with members readily found living today and as such provide indication of prevailing conditions in the seas of the Cretaceous and possible trends in the evolution of the genera over such a long time scale. The species are distinguished from other known members of the genera although an overall appreciation must await the description of other related taxa.

Keywords:

• Cretaceous
• diatoms
• Ellerbeckia
• Paralia
• evolution
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank David Williams at the NHM for help with typification and suggesting the figure number be included in case of stub deterioration. We are also grateful to Jovita Yesilyurt for her help in the preparation of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.