Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 62, núm. 2, 2010, p. 263-279 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2010v62n2a6

On some Panamerican Cretaceous crabs (Decapoda: Raninoida)

Francisco J. Vega^1,*, Torrey Nyborg², Greg Kovalchuk³, Javier Luque^4,5, Alexis Rojas-Briceño⁶, Pedro Patarroyo⁶, Héctor Porras-Múzquiz⁷, Adam Armstrong⁸, Hermann Bermúdez⁹, and Luis Garibay¹⁰

¹Instituto de Geología, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria, México, D.F., Mexico.
²Department of Earth and Biological Sciences, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda CA, 92350, USA.
³ 1401 Chinook Street, The Dalles, OR 97058, USA.
⁴ Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology. Apartado Postal 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancon, Panama.
⁵Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal QC, Canada.
⁶Departamento de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, A. A. 14490, Bogotá, Colombia.
⁷Museo de Múzquiz A. C., Zaragoza 209, Múzquiz, Coahuila, 26340, Mexico.
⁸306 Hilltop Road, Keene, TX, 76059, USA.
⁹ Carrera 57 No 134-20, torre 3 Apto 1004. Bogotá D.C., Colombia.
¹⁰Unidad Académica de Ciencias de la Tierra, UAG, Exhacienda de San Juan Bautista S/N, Taxco el Viejo, Guerrero, 40200, Mexico.

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Abstract

Decapod crustacean specimens recently collected from new and previously reported localities of USA, Mexico, and Colombia, as well as a review of species of uncertain affinity, add important information to complete the descriptions and paleobiological knowledge of some Cretaceous primitive crabs. The stratigraphic range for the genus Cenomanocarcinus is formally extended from the upper Albian to Campanian, based on occurrences from Colombia, Oklahoma and Mexico. Specimens of Cenomanocarcinus vanstraeleni from the Turonian of Mexico and Colombia include features not described previously for this species, such as variation in the shape and ornament of chelae. Necrocarcinus renfroae is here included in the genus Cenomanocarcinus, based on features of dorsal and ventral carapaces, as well as shape of pereiopods, and its occurrence is documented from the upper Albian of Colombia. Orithopsis tricarinata is reported for the first time in America from upper Albian deposits of Oregon and Colombia; the shape of the sternum confirms close affinities with the Cenomanocarcinidae and the family Orithopsidae is here included in the section Raninoida and restricted to the genus Orithopsis.

Keywords: Crustacea, Raninoida, Cretaceous, North America, South America.