Eocene and Oligocene chitons (Polyplacophora) from the Paris and Hampshire Basins

Abstract

Eocene and Oligocene chitons (Polyplacophora) from the Paris Basin of N France are described along with comparative material from the Hampshire Basin of the UK. The assemblages include eight species, five of which are new: Ischnochiton fehsei sp. nov., Stenoplax monila sp. nov., Chaetopleura gaasi sp. nov., C. abbessi sp. nov. and Tonicella lira sp. nov. Other taxa in the assemblages are Leptochiton cf. algesirensis, I. vectensis and S. anglica.

Keywords:

• Polyplacophora
• chitons
• Eocene-Oligocene
• Paris Basin
• Hampshire Basin

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Alan Morton for loaning the new material of I. vectensis for study from his collections from the Isle of Wight, and to Dirk Fehse (Berlin) who collected and donated much of the material described from Paris Basin localities. We thank the referees Michael Vendrasco (Pasadena City College, USA) and Boris Sirenko (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) for their constructive comments.