Late Jurassic: Early Cretaceous cephalopods of eastern Alexander Island, Antarctica

MESOZOIC CEPHALOPODS have been reported from a number of localities around the Antarctic
Peninsula. The stratigraphically oldest occurrence is of an ammonite (provisionally assigned to the
genus Epophioceras) and an indeterminate belemnite phragmocone collected from the Lully
Foothills of central Alexander Island, which were dated as early Jurassic, possibly Sinemurian
(Thomson and Tranter 1986). The youngest faunas are from the James Ross and Seymour islands
region, where a rich Lower to Upper Cretaceous (?Aptian-Maastrichtian) ammonite and belemnite
assemblage has been described (Thomson 1984; Doyle 1985A, 1987; Macellari 1986; see also
Feldmann and W o o d b u r n e 1988). However, important Antarctic cephalopod localities of late
Jurassic-early Cretaceous age are known. The most diverse and well-preserved cephalopod faunas
of this age are to be found along the eastern coast of Alexander Island, and they are the subject of
this paper.