Late Pleistocene terrestrial faunas of Jamaica are typically found in limestone caves and fissures. Unusually, lithified sand dunes at Great Pedro Bluff, parish of St. Elizabeth, have yielded a biota of land snails and rhizoliths. The land snails include Poteria? sp., Sagda sp. cf. S. delaminata (C. B. Adams), Pleurodonte sp. cf. P. lucerna (Müller) and Pleurodonte sp. 2. These are all large, ground dwelling genera that are widely distributed in other mid-late Pleistocene land snail bearing deposits of Jamaica, as well as the Recent. Small species are not present at Great Pedro Bluff, probably a taphonomic artifact rather than collection failure. Amino acid racemization ratios from Pleurodonte tentatively suggest an oxygen isotope stage 5e correlation; morphostratigraphic correlation previously suggested a younger, Wisconsin age, which still seems more likely.
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1 January 2010
Land snails from the late Pleistocene lithified sand dunes of Great Pedro Bluff, southwest Jamaica
Stephen K. Donovan,
Christopher R. C. Paul
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Caribbean Journal of Science
Vol. 46 • No. 1
2010
Vol. 46 • No. 1
2010
fossil dunes
Jamaica
land snails
Pleistocene
taphonomy
Wisconsin