A new genus and species of raninoid crab from the Upper Cretaceous of Mississippi

Abstract

A new genus and species of raninoid crab, Carinatus galebishopi, is described from the upper Maastrichtian Prairie Bluff and Owl Creek formations of Mississippi. Carinatus galebishopi gen. et sp. nov. fits best within the Raninidae, Subfamily Symethinae, based upon similar dorsal carapace characteristics of member genera. The new crab possesses distinctive dorsal carapace ornamentation setting it apart from described symethines and warrants establishment of a new genus. Carinatus galebishopi represents the first Cretaceous symethine crab and suggests the subfamily may have migrated eastward across the North Atlantic—Maastrichtian of Mississippi, Danian of New Jersey, and Ypresian of Spain—before dispersing to the Indo-Pacific.