Pseudocythere caudata Sars 1866

Figure 6.12

1894 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Müller, p. 284, pl. 16, figs. 5, 10.

1980 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Colalongo and Pasini, p. 64, pl. 26, fig. 5.

1992 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Ciampo, p. 227.

2005 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Sciuto, p. 222. 2014 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Sciuto, p. 4.

2014 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Yasuhara and Okahashi, p. 774, figs. 2.9, 2.10.

2014 Pseudocythere caudata Sars; Yasuhara et al., p. 348, figs. 5.1, 5.2.

Remarks. The subspecies Pseudocythere caudata mediterranea Bonaduce et al., 1980 was created on the basis of slight differences in the soft part and in the carapace. The SML specimens do not show these features. They were, therefore, attributed to the Sars species.

P. caudata was found mostly in the Framework Corals facies (CF). In the Recent Mediterranean, this species seems to have a very wide ecological distribution from shallow continental shelf to abyssal environments. However, it is known throughout the Pliocene and the Pleistocene always from sediments presumably deposited in deep water environments. In the Pleistocene sediments of Scoppo (ME) several complete specimens of P. caudata were found in proximity of coral rudstones (Sciuto, unpublished data), in environmental condition, which may be considered very similar to those currently found at SML.

Such an abundance of P. caudata specimens in deep environments might be explained with the abundance of food due to the presence of coral colonies, as suggested for species belonging to Paradoxostoma, Paracytherois and Sclerochilus (Coles et al., 1996).