Necrocarcinus woodwardii Bell 1863

Necrocarcinus woodwardii Bell, 1863

(Fig. 4)

Necrocarcinus Woodwardii Bell 1863: 20, pl. 4, figs. 1‒3.— de Tribolet 1875: 8l. — Woodward 1877: 3.— Forir 1887: 193.— Carter 1898: 29, pl. 2, fig. l.— Lőrenthey 1929: 300, fig. 22a.— Van Straelen 1936: 36.— Förster 1968: 175.— Wright & Collins 1972: 65 ‒66, pl. 12, fig. 1‒2.— Gründel 1974: 90, t. 4, fig. 1‒2.— Feldmann et al. 1993: 36.— Fraaye 1994: 264, fig. 1.— Schweitzer et al. 2003: t. 3.— Jagt et al. 2010: 178, t. 1.— Breton & Collins 2011: 147, fig. 5 A –B.— Van Bakel et al. 2012: 204.— Luque 2014: 31.

Locality and horizon. Racó de Cortés, near Orxeta (Marina Baixa, Alacant Province, Spain). Stoliczkaia dispar Biozone, late Albian.

Material examined and measurements (in mm). One specimen embedded in marly limestone. MGB 78175: length= 23,5; width= 25; fronto-orbital width= 10,5.

Description. Carapace small sized, appears subcircular, slightly wider than long; the specimen has maximum width at mid length of carapace; dorsal regions covered by strong conical upward directed tubercles; cuticle finely granulated. Fronto-orbital margin about 0,60 of maximum carapace width. Front produced with subtriangular rostrum, distally downturned, with one small tooth on each side. Orbits rounded, raised; supraorbital margin with two notches bounding a supraorbital tooth, and with strong outer and inner orbital teeth. Anterolateral margin convex, triangular teeth present, the last one (epibranchial) laterally directed. Posterolateral margin convex; tooth present at mid length. Posterior margin not preserved. Epigastric region depressed medially. Protogastric lobes slightly swollen, two conical tubercles transversally contiguous. Mesogastric lobe subtriangular elongate, reaching the epigastric region; posterior part wider, with three contiguous tubercles the medial one the most prominent; anterior part slightly inflated, slender, with one tubercle at same level as that of the protogastric ones. Metagastric region indistinct Urogastric region subtrapezoidal, inflated, with a central tubercle. Cardiac region swollen, bearing a prominent tubercle, separated from the urogastric region by a weak depression. Intestinal region depressed, not completely preserved. Hepatic region defined by a small tubercle. Epibranchial region defined by two contiguous tubercles at the same level as the posterior ones of the mesogastric lobe; mesobranchial lobe inflated with prominent medial tubercle; metabranchial lobe depressed, tubercle near the posterolateral corner. Cervical groove well defined, dividing meso-metagastric lobe and urogastric lobe. Branchiocardiac groove deeply marked along urogastric and cardiac regions.

Remarks. Even although is not possible to count the “twenty large tubercles” described by Wright & Collins (1972: 66) because the Orxeta specimen is incomplete, at least eighteen of them can be counted. Despite the lateral and posterior margins of this specimens are not well-preserved, and the carapace is somewhat crushed, its overall outline and regions with strong upward directed conical tubercles, match perfectly with the description and figures of Wright & Collins (1972) of British specimens or those of Breton & Collins (2011) of French specimens. In addition, the Spanish specimen presents well-preserved triangular rostrum with small rostral spines on both sides, as was pointed out in the French samples by Breton & Collins (2011: 147). The occurrence of N. woodwardii in the Albian outcrops of the Racó de Cortés in the southeastern of the Spain represents, besides being the first record of the species in the Iberian Peninsula, the most meridional record for the species, only known hitherto from the Upper Albian and Cenomanian of the United Kingdom and France and Germany.