Miocene molluscs and barnacles from Mont Rond,Kerguelen Islands |
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| Authors: | Agnès Lauriat-Rage René-Pierre Carriol Pierre Lozouet André Giret Hervé Leyrit |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Laboratoire de Paléontologie , Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle , CNRS UMR 8569, 8 rue Buffon, F-75005, Paris E-mail: alaurage@mnhnfr;2. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle , Laboratoire de Paléontologie , 8 rue Buffon, F-75005, Paris;3. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle , Laboratoire de Biologie des Invertébrés marins et Malacologie , CNRS ESA 8044, 55 rue Buffon, F-75005, Paris;4. Département de Géologie-Pétrologie-Géochimie , Université Jean-Monnet , CNRS-UMR 6524, 23 rue du Dr Paul Michelon, F-42023, Saint-Etienne Cedex 2;5. Institut Polytechnique Saint-Louis, Institut Géologique Albert de Lapparent , 13, boulevard de l'Hautil, F-95092, Cergy-Pontoise Cedex |
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| Abstract: | A sedimentary deposit discovered at Kerguelen Islands in 1988 is interbedded in the Cape MacLear cliffs, near Mont Rond (Ronarc'h Peninsula). The age of this oceanic deposit is considered to be lower to middle Miocene as indicated by isotopic dating of both the underlying and overlying basalts. This deposit yields a fauna essentially consisting of molluscs (bivalves, gastropods) and crustaceans (cirripedes). This fauna exhibits some similarities to Miocene to Recent austral faunas (New Zealand, Argentina) as a result of the establishment of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. However, it has no species in common with the extant Kerguelen fauna. The Mont Rond fossil assemblage is best compared with either of two types of extant communities developed on a bare sandy sea floor where infaunal species are dominant, but most likely to an opportunistic one in depths from approximately 10 to 80 m. |
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| Keywords: | Kerguelen Islands Indian Ocean Miocene taxonomy stratigraphy palaeobiogeography palaeoecology |
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