Taxonomy and palaeoecology of thoracican cirripedes (Crustacea) from a Campanian rocky shoreline at Ivö Klack, southern Sweden

An abundant and diverse fauna of thoracican cirripedes is described on the basis of over 3000 isolated valves collected from a single lens of material representing in the order of a few thousand years of Campanian time (c. 80 Ma), from sediment formed on and close to a rocky shoreline at Ivö Klack in southern Sweden. At least twenty-eight species are present in the fauna, belonging to scalpelliform and basal sessile taxa. Two families (Myolepadidae and Titanolepadidae) and four genera are new (Myolepas, Bosquetlepas, Levelepas and Ivoelepas), as are seven species (Titanolepas spinifer, Levelepas roeperi, Ivoelepas nielseni, Arcoscalpellum scaniensis, Pollicipes vansyoci and P. (?) striatum). The palaeoecology is discussed with reference to extant cirripede faunas from rocky coastal environments. It is concluded that, although many taxa lived subtidally, the pollicipedids and pollicipedid-like forms (Capitulum, Pollicipes and Myolepas, respectively) lived in the intertidal zone, attached to rocks in a high-energy environment. Pachydiadema, a large basal balanomorph species, was adapted to living attached to boulders in the intertidal zone. The remarkable diversity significantly exceeds that of any known fossil thoracican assemblage, and is unknown in similar habitats at the present day, possibly challenging Darwin's famous quip that we currently live in the ‘Age of Barnacles’.