MOLLUSCAN FAUNAS OF THE ASHLEY FORMATION AND CHANDLER BRIDGE FORMATION (OLIGOCENE), CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

The molluscan faunas of the marine Ashley Formation and Chandler Bridge Formation around Charleston, South Carolina have received little study. In the early literature, these beds were assigned ages from the Eocene to the Miocene. More recent papers have assigned these beds to NP 24 in the middle Oligocene, and described the vertebrate faunas. The Ashley Formation has a published fauna of eleven genera of Bivalvia, four genera of Gastropoda, and one genus of Scaphopoda. Curation of Charleston Museum collections is providing new specimens from these strata. Preliminary identifications add four genera of Bivalvia to the fauna of the Ashley Formation and five genera of Bivalvia and two genera of Gastropoda to the fauna of the Chandler Bridge Formation. These specimens will more completely establish the molluscan faunas, and allow better comparisons with other Oligocene faunas.