An investigation of vermetid reefs from the Miocene of Peru, with the description of a new species

Exquisitely preserved fossils of a new reef-building vermetid species from shallow-marine lower Miocene (Burdigalian) deposits of the Chilcatay Formation and upper Miocene (Tortonian) sediments of the Pisco Formation of Peru are here reported and described in detail for the first time. These finds are assigned to the living genus Thylacodes and recognized as representatives of a new species, Thylacodes devriesi sp. nov. This new taxon is known by long, almost straight tube-like shells that display peculiar ornamentations in form of striated lamellae and are arranged in an organ-pipe fashion. This discovery represents an important addition to the knowledge of the systematics and distribution of Thylacodes in South America in the geological past. Paleoenvironmental and taphonomic inferences drawn by the fossil remains of this reef-forming species are herein discussed for both the Chilcatay and Pisco Formations in the broader framework of the South American fossil record of Vermetidae.