The occurrence of the Upper Jurassic bivalve Malayomaorica malayomaorica (Krumbeck) on the Orville Coast, Antarctica

Malayomaorica malayomaorica is an important Upper Jurassic bivalve in the southern hemisphere: widely distributed in strata of Early - Middle Kimmeridgian age, it is a zone fossil of considerable potential for regional biostratigraphic correlations. Its common occurrence in the Latady Formation of the Orville Coast, Antarctica, indicates that at least part of this stratigraphic unit has a Kimmeridgian age. Although its precise taxonomic status remains in some doubt, it would appear to be the earliest buchiid-like bivalve so far recorded from the southern hemisphere. Its very wide distribution around the margins of Gondwana is similar to that established for species of the Late Jurassic bivalve genera Retroceramus, Buchia and Anopaea