A new Early Cretaceous pylochelid hermit crab from Slovenia suggests that Trizochelinae (Decapoda, Paguroidea) may also be linked to the Mesozoic Marine Revolution

Abstract

A new pylochelid hermit crab, Cretatrizocheles rodfeldmanni new species, is recorded from a Lower Cretaceous (Aptian/Albian) olistolith reefal limestone block near the village of Velika Strmica, southeast Slovenia. It adds to the fossil record of the symmetrical pagurid subfamily Trizochelinae, whose members appear to have been successful inhabitants of shallow-marine reefal settings during at the least the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous across Europe. Given their exclusive occurrence in shallow-marine, reef-related facies of Mesozoic age and the present-day confinement to deep-marine settings, trizocheline paguroids may also illustrate the effect of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution.