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Jaws of a New Species of Nanaimoteuthis (Coleoidea: Vampyromorphida) from the Tuironian of Hokkaido, Japan

2010; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2517/1342-8144-14.2.145

1880-0068

Kazushige Tanabe, Yoshinori Hikida,

Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

A new Late Cretaceous vampyromorphid coleoid, Nanaimoteuthis yokotai sp. nov. is described on the basis of two lower jaws recovered from the Turonian of Hokkaido, Japan. The lower jaw of this new species consists of equally sized outer and inner lamellae, and the crest portion of the latter is wholly covered by the former. The maximum length of the outer lamella in the holotype attains 63.7 mm, suggesting a remarkably large body size of the living animal. The new specimens reported herein and other occurrences of cephalopod jaws and gladii which were previously described from Hokkaido (Japan) and Vancouver Island (Canada) demonstrate the existence of a comparatively highly diverse coleoid fauna including -in some cases exceptionally large- specimens of the Teuthida, Vampyromorphida, Cirroctopodida, Octopodida, and Sepiida in the Late Cretaceous North Pacific.