New early Eocene marine gastropods from Baja California Sur, Mexico

Abstract

Three gastropod species are described from a previously unknown shallow-marine molluscan fauna in the lower Eocene Bateque Formation, southwest of San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Velates batequensis n. sp., a commonly occurring neritid in the Bateque, is the only ribbed Velates known from the Western Hemisphere. The fairly rare Platyoptera pacifica n. sp. is the earliest record of this strombid genus and its first occurrence on the west coast of North America. The very rare Cypraedia sp. is also the first occurrence of this cypraeid-like genus on the west coast of North America.