A new volute, Ericusa ngayawang sp. nov. (Gastropoda: Volutidae), from the Miocene of South Australia.

Abstract

Ericusa ngayawang sp. nov. is described from shells preserved in the Middle Miocene Cadell Formation in the western Murray Basin of South Australia. At the time the Murray Basin was part of the Southeastern Australian Marine Biogeographic Province. Ericusa ngayawang is a small heavily costate species of Ericusa with clear affinities to the Early Miocene E. atkinsoni of Victoria and Tasmania but can be distinguished from it by its smaller size, more slender proportions and its heavily costate body whorl. Ericusa atkinsoni and its relative, E. macroptera, inhabited the basins to the east of the Murray Basin during the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene but were extinct there before the end of the Burdigalian Stage of the Early Miocene. The persistence of E. ngayawang into the Langhian Stage of the Middle Miocene is another piece of evidence for partial biogeographic isolation of the western Murray Basin from the rest of the Southeastern Australian Province during the Miocene.