Morphoceratid ammonites from the Upper Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) of Monte Kumeta, western Sicily

The Upper Bathonian beds of the Rosso Ammonitico Inferiore on Monte Kumeta, western Sicily, yielded several rare or previously unknown ammonites, including representatives of the family Morphoceratidae. This family has been known basically from the Upper Bajocian and the Lower Bathonian, but here the local sedimentation circumstances (deposition on top of a submarine high) and the exceptional preservation (seemingly rapid burial of skeletal remains by clayey mud) resulted in the survival of shells of small ammonites, usually lost through aragonite subsolution common in this environment. One new genus: Mangoldiceras n. gen. with Mangoldiceras distefanoi n. sp. as type species is designated, and the Upper Bathonian occurrences of the genera Ebrayiceras, Pseudodimorphinites and probably Polysphinctites are demonstrated. Ebrayiceras problematicum ( Gemmellaro, 1877), which was regarded formerly as a Lower Bathonian ammonite, now is strongly suggested, on the basis of several newly collected specimens, as an Upper Bathonian species. These appearances are understood as rare finds that help to reconstruct the morphoceratid lineage as more continuous in the Bathonian and longer than previously known.