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7 September 2022 The first Miocene chiton fauna from the northeastern Pacific
Michael J. Vendrasco, Charles L. Powell II, Patrick LaFollette
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Abstract

An assemblage of 34 chiton valves collected from rocks of the “Imperial” Formation sensu lato at Super Creek near Palm Springs, California, is described here. The sedimentary rocks exposed at Super Creek were deposited in the proto-Gulf of California during the Late Miocene. This chiton assemblage represents the first reported Miocene chitons from western North America. The chiton valves are classified as Callistochiton cf. C. elenensis, Chaetopleura cf. C. lanuginosa mixta, Calloplax roederi n. sp., Chiton solaris n. sp., Callistoplacidae sp. indet., and Chaetopleuridae sp. indet. Thick valves dominate the assemblage. The chiton fossils reflect the overall faunal pattern from the “Imperial” Formation s.l. of a strong similarity to taxa in the modern Gulf of California, with a Caribbean component as well. This assemblage fills a gap in the chiton fossil record and preserves details of the adaptive radiation of the Polyplacophora that occurred at the time in concert with the onset of an upwelling regime.

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Paleontological Society
Michael J. Vendrasco, Charles L. Powell II, and Patrick LaFollette "The first Miocene chiton fauna from the northeastern Pacific," Journal of Paleontology 96(5), 1047-1060, (7 September 2022). https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2022.4
Accepted: 23 January 2022; Published: 7 September 2022
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