Upper Cretaceous Crustacea from Central Cuba

Abstract

We report new occurrences and additions to previously described species of decapod crustaceans from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of Cuba. Three of the eight species herein described and illustrated were published previously: Vegaranina rivasi Arano-Ruiz et al.2018; Graptocarcinus collinsi Vega et al., 2020; and Icriobranchiocarcinus rodas Vega et al., 2021; however additional specimens are included. New records include one indeterminate lobster, two new genera and three new species of raninoids, and the first report of Ophthalmoplax cf. O. brasiliana Maury 1930 from Cuba. The most numerous specimens correspond to raninoids, which although not complete, can be described based on complementary pieces of the dorsal carapace and front, and they are assigned as follows: Aguadites hexagranula Vega, Garassino, Nyborg, and Pasini n. gen. sp.; Rodanina monosensis Vega, Garassino, Nyborg, and Pasini n. gen et sp., and Raninoides granulofrons Vega, Garassino, Nyborg, and Pasini n. sp., which represents the oldest record for the genus. Vegaranina rivasi is compared to V. precocia (Feldmann, Vega, Tucker, García-Barrera and Avendaño, 1996) from the Maastrichtian of Chiapas, Mexico, confirming different characters to keep both species as representatives of Vegaranina Van Bakel, Guinot, Artal, Fraaije and Jagt 2012a. The astacid lobster is represented by one isolated carapace (part and counterpart), preserved in a concretion. Two complete dorsal carapaces (one preserving the right cheliped) of Graptocarcinus collinsi represent additional information on the morphology of this species. An incomplete specimen of Ophtalmoplax cf. O. brasiliana, confirms the extensive distribution of this species during Maastrichtian times in the Atlantic shallow marine environments, from Brazil to North Carolina, USA, representing the missing link of the distribution to be found in the Caribbean province. A dorsal carapace is assigned to Icriobranchiocarcinus rodas , since it shows the typical transverse ridges of the species. This report represents an important addition to the knowledge of the Cretaceous crustaceans from Cuba and the Caribbean, confirming that this paleobiogeographic province was composed by a quite different assemblage from those reported from the same age (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of nearby regions such as NE Mexico, SE USA and NE South America.