A New Lobster (Crustacea, Decapoda, Achelata) from the Riachuelo Formation, Albian of Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, NE Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11137/1982-3908_2025_48_68263Keywords:
Invertebrate Fossil, Lower Cretaceous, Taquari MemberAbstract
In this paper, we describe the second fossil lobster discovered from the Brazilian Cretaceous. The fossil was yielded in marine greyish shale, associated with fishes and ammonite mollusks of the Taquari Member of Riachuelo Formation, Sergipe State. The material was collected in the 1980s from the subsurface (by “shaft”) at the Rosário do Catete locality by a team of the extinct PETROMISA (Petrobrás Mineração S.A.). The sole specimen measures 4.5 cm length and ~2 cm width, corresponding to a wide and slightly flattened, well-calcified pleonal region, with six separate somites, ending in a tail fan. The placement of this new lobster within Achelata is supported by the presence of six dorsoventrally flattened pleonalsomites ending with well-developed uropods, with lateral rami lacking transverse division. Pleurae of somites are short, rounded, and continuous, separated fromtergites by a distinct longitudinal carina. Due to the absence of the cephalothorax and swimmerets, it is not possible to assign the lobster to any major subclade with certainty, and it is not formally named because the specimen is insufficient to serve as a type. It differs from the lobster previously described from the Brejo Quarry (Angico Member) by the absence of alongitudinal median carina on the tail, the presence of smooth somites of subequal width, rounded and continuous pleurae, and punctate ornamentation (finely pits on cuticle). Besides the associated fauna is practically the same, particularly the fish assemblage, the occurrence of lobsters together with ammonites and certain fishes corroborates the interpretation of a neritic marine environment for the Riachuelo Formation.
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