Keerimalai [Jaffna Limestone] (Miocene of Sri Lanka)

Where: Sri Lanka (9.8° N, 80.0° E: paleocoordinates 9.8° N, 80.0° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Jaffna Limestone Formation, Burdigalian (20.4 - 16.0 Ma)

• STRATIGRAPHIC RELATIONS: From Jaffna Limestone, which unconformably overlies Precambrian basement, and is unconformably overlain by recent sand dunes and coral reefs, and Quaternary red earth. AGE: late Early Miocene (Burdigalian) on the basis of foraminifera. STRATIGRAPHIC POSITION: From unknown position within formation.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: shallow subtidal; lithified, shelly/skeletal, white, yellow limestone

• ENVIRONMENT: Shallow marine, carbonate facies, probably adjacent to coral reef environments.
• SPECIFIC LITHOLOGY: Hard, partly crystalline, compact, indistinctly bedded creamy coloured rock. Massive in parts but some layers are richly fossiliferous. LITHIFICATION: Lithified, based on facies description.

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: COLLECTOR: Unknown collector. REPOSITORY: Unknown repository, possibly Geological Survey Department, Sri Lanka or the National Museum of Sri Lanka.

Primary reference: P. G. Cooray. 1984. An Introduction to the Geology of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) 1-340 [A. Hendy/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 77475: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 13.01.2008

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• COVERAGE: Exhaustive for gastropoda, bivalvia, foraminifera, and anthozoa. NOMENCLATURE: Not an authoritative publication, but with relatively modern nomenclature, and subgenus and species-resolution assignments.
Tubothalamea
 Miliolida - Soritidae
 Miliolida - Alveolinidae
 Miliolida - Miliolidae
Miliolidae indet. Ehrenberg 1839
Foraminifera
 Nummulitacea - Nummulitidae
Florideophyceae
 Hapalidiales - Corallinophycidae
"Lithothamnium sp." = Lithothamnion
"Lithothamnium sp." = Lithothamnion Heydrich 1897
Gastropoda
 Trochoidea - Trochidae
Tectus loryi d'Archaic and Haime 1853 top snail
 Cerithioidea - Cerithiidae
Ptychocerithium archiaci Vredenburg 1928 cerith snail
SUBSPECIES: Ptychocerithium archiaci pseudocorrugatum
 Architaenioglossa - Ampullinidae
"Euspirocrommium oweni" = Pachycrommium oweni
"Euspirocrommium oweni" = Pachycrommium oweni d'Archiac and Haime 1854 snail
 Neogastropoda - Olivellidae
Agaronia pupa Sowerby 1840 snail
 Neogastropoda - Conidae
Conus (Lithoconus) litteratus Linnaeus 1758 cone shell
 Sorbeoconcha - Cassidae
"Phalium (Semicassis) booleyi" = Semicassis
"Phalium (Semicassis) booleyi" = Semicassis snail
 Sorbeoconcha - Cypraeidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Xenophoridae
Xenophora sp. Fischer von Waldheim 1807 carrier shell
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
Natica rostalina Jenkins 1864 moon snail
Bivalvia
 Arcida - Arcidae
 Pectinida - Pectinoidae
"Chlamys senatoria" = Mimachlamys senatoria Gmelin 1791 scallop
 Cardiida - Cardiidae
? Discors triforme Sowerby 1840 cockle