Abstract
ABSTRACT Cidaroid sea urchin remains (isolated radioles and rare plates) are described from marine strata of the Harnetts Formation (New Zealand Waitakian Stage (=Late Chattian – Early Aquitarian)), part of the Otaua Group (Late Oligocene – Early Miocene) outcropping in the Waimamaku Valley, in the South Hokianga district, Northland, New Zealand. Abundant large and robust spines (radioles), assigned here to two previously known Indo-Pacific genera Stereocidaris and Phyllacanthus, form part of a distinctive, transported shallow shelf component of a macrofossil assemblage occurring in grit horizons within the deep marine (bathyal) sandstone sequence. Cidaroid spine morphology allows for tentative identification of fossil taxa to species level. Several test fragments, namely large but worn interambulacral plates, have also been collected from the type locality and a possible nearby outlier of Harnetts Formation. These outcrops are locally significant as the only known exposures of the geographically restricted unit, incorporated into the Northland Allochthon during its emplacement.
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