A CORAL ASSOCIATED DECAPOD FAUNA FROM THE WHITE LIMESTONE SUPERGROUP OF JAMAICA

Astonishingly, only a single decapod specimen from the whole of the White Limestone Supergroup of Jamaica, which consists of ten named formations ranging in age from middle Eocene to Late Miocene, has been recorded. To this meager record, a Callianassa, we add the discovery of a well-preserved, coral associated crab fauna consisting of 15 new species in 14 genera. The fauna was recently discovered in the Early Miocene Montpelier Formation of the White Limestone Supergroup in exposures on the northcentral coast of Jamaica. This assemblage provides an opportunity to describe a Miocene decapod fauna unique to the Caribbean. Four genera belonging to the families Dromiidae, Leucosiidae, Portunidae, and Xanthidae are new. Of the remainder, Lophopanopeus is known from both older and younger North American deposits and five genera Dynomene, Teleophrys, Daira, Trapezia, and Chlorodiella are Recent genera, recorded for the first time as fossils in the Caribbean. With the exception of Teleophrys, all are represented in the Upper Miocene coral associated deposits of Europe and similar deposits of Middle Miocene age from Japan, from whence Leptodius has also been described. Only three extant genera, Mithrax, Micropanope, and Panopeus previously have been recorded in younger deposits from Jamaica. The only other coral associated assemblage described from the Caribbean comprises a small fauna from the Pleistocene terraces of Barbados, consisting of twelve species in seven genera, all but one of which are extant forms.