Postgraduate Majors

Deborah-Ann Rowe

M.Phil. Candidate

Eocene Echinoids of the Beecher Town, Swanswick Formation

The Swanswick formation at the Pimento Hill location in Beecher Town, in the parish of St. Ann has yielded the widest variety of echinoids of any locality in the islands. The fauna includes species belonging the orders Cidaroida Claus, Spatangoida Claus, Cassiduloida Claus, and Oligopygoida Kier. By far, the most abundant specimens belonged to genus Haimea. A new species of echinoid Aguoayaster schickleri Donavan and Rowe, 2000 (named for late Pimento Hill owner William Schickler) has been recorded from the locality.

The project entails the systematic description of the echinoid fauna as well as an attempt at statistically solving the dilemma of species differentiation within the Haimea sp. or spp. when classification is difficult due to the action of taphonomic processes on the fossil specimens.

Supervisor   Dr. Thomas Stemann