Taphonomy And Systematics Of A New Late Cretaceous Verrucid Barnacle (Cirripedia Thoracica) From Canterbury New Zealand

Cirripede remains (Thoracica, Verrucomorpha), found associated with the mosasaur Prognathodon waiparaensis Welles and Gregg, 1971 in glauconitic sands of the Late Cretaceous Conway Formation exposed along the Waipara River bank (mid-Canterbury, New Zealand), are identified as a new species, Verruca sauria sp. nov. On the basis of taphonomy, it is deduced that these verrucids grew on a postmortem accumulation of mosasaur bones under very quiescent conditions. The current amphitropical distribution of the earliest known verrucids, i.e. V. sauria sp. nov., V. prisca Bosquet, 1854, V. pusilla Bosquet, 1857 and V. tasmanica Buckeridge, 1983, is rationalized in the light of Tethyan palaeogeography.