Late Pleistocene land snails from ‘red bed’ deposits, Round Hill, south central Jamaica

Abstract

DONOVAN, S.K. & PAUL, C.R.C., 2013. Late Pleistocene land snails from ‘red bed’ deposits, Round Hill, south central Jamaica. Alcheringa, 1–12. ISSN 0311-5518.

Fossil land snails from the Antilles are known mainly from cave deposits. Hitherto, only one late Pleistocene site in Jamaica has yielded parautochthonous land snails that were not trapped in a cave. The second, in conglomeratic, alluvial red beds at Farquhar's Beach, parish of Clarendon, has produced numerous specimens and a greater diversity of species. These include Alcadia (Alcadia) citrinolabris (C.B. Adams), Lucidella (Perenna) yallahsensis (Pilsbry & Brown), Poteria sp., Adamsiella (Adamsiella) sp., Annularia (Annularia) mitis (Pfeiffer), Parachondria (Parachondrella) crenulosa (C.B. Adams), Urocoptis brevis (Pfeiffer), Pleurodonte sp. cf. P. sinuata (Müller), Pleurodonte sublucerna (Pilsbry), Sagda centralis Goodfriend and Sagda sp. cf. S. pila (C.B. Adams). These nine genera are common components of coeval cave deposits on the island. Jamaica is a biodiversity hot spot for extant land snails, yet they are only common as fossils in the late Pleistocene (<100 000 years) despite the fact that most of the island has been subaerially exposed since the end of the middle Miocene.

Abstract

牙买加中南部Round Hill“红层”的晚更新世陆生螺

在Antilles地区, 陆生螺化石主要采自洞穴沉积物。因此, 在牙买加仅一个晚更新世地点产出非洞穴准原地陆生螺。另一个地点是Clarendon地区Farquhar 海滩的砾石冲积红层, 产出许多标本, 种的数量更多, 包括: Alcadia (Alcadia) citrinolobris (C. B. Adams), Lucidella (Perenna) yallahsensis (Pilsbry & Brown), Poteria sp., Adamsiella (Adamsiella)sp., Annularia (Annularia) mitis (Pfeiffer), Parachondria (Parachondrella) crenulosa (C. B. Adams),Urocoptis brevis (Pfeiffer), Pleurodonte sp. cf. P. sinuate (Müller), Pleurodonte sublucerna (Pilsbry), Sagda centralis Goodfriend 以及 Sagda sp. cf. S. pila (C. B. Adams)。这九个属是岛上同时期洞穴沉积物中的常见分子。牙买加以现生陆生螺高分异度著名, 然而它们只是在晚更新世(<100 000年) 才普遍, 尽管事实是, 自中新世中期之末, 该岛大部分地区都是出露的地表。

Key words:

• gastropods
• alluvial fans
• systematics
• preservation
• Wisconsin glacial interval
• Farquhar's Beach
• biodiversity hot spot

Acknowledgements

S.K.D. thanks the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund of the Linnean Society of London and the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum—Naturalis (now Naturalis Biodiversity Center), Leiden, for supporting his fieldwork in Jamaica. Professor Trevor A. Jackson (University of the West Indies, Seismic Research Centre, Trinidad) and Dr Donovan J. Blissett (University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica) are thanked for their assistance and companionship in the field. Insightful reviews by Igor V. Muratov and Gary Rosenberg are gratefully acknowledged.