Cainozoic Research, 15(1-2), pp. 13-54, October 2015 13 The Pyramidellidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from the Miocene Cantaure Formation of Venezuela Bernard M. Landau1, 3 & Patrick I. LaFollette2 1 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands; Instituto Dom Luiz da Universi- dade de Lisboa, Portugal and International Health Centres, Av. Infante de Henrique 7, Areias São João, P-8200-261 Albufeira, Portugal;
[email protected] 2 Research Associate, Malacology Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boul- evard, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.;
[email protected] 3 corresponding author Received 18 June 2015, revised version accepted 15 July 2015 The Pyramidellidae Gray, 1840 present in the upper Burdigalian-lower Langhian, Lower-Middle Miocene, Cantaure Formation assemblage of Venezuela is described and discussed. Twenty-one species are recognised: 13 are described as new: Brachystomia cantaurana nov. sp., Goniodostomia bicarinata nov. sp., Iolaea miocenica nov. sp., Chrysallida cantaurana nov. sp., Kleinella pumila nov. sp., Parthenina martae nov. sp., Ividella guppyi nov. sp., Chemnitzia macsotayi nov. sp., Turbonilla paraguanensis nov. sp., Pyrgiscus caribbaeus nov. sp., Pyrgiscus silvai nov. sp., Eulimella dianeae nov. sp. and Iselica belliata nov. sp., three are left in open nomenclature. The state of knowledge of tropical American Neogene pyramidellids is rudimentary, but the assemblage is fairly typical at generic level to that of the tropical American Neogene today, with some species suggesting closer affinities with tropical American Pacific taxa. KEY WORDS: Pyramidellidae, Miocene, Cantaure, Venezuela, new species. Introduction Pyramidellidae. Of these projects, only Bartsch’s 1955 ‘The pyramidellid mollusks of the Pliocene deposits of Despite the enormous amount of research done by the North St.