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Marine radiocarbon (14C) ages are an important geochronology tool for the understanding of past earthquakes and tsunamis that have impacted the coastline of New Zealand. To advance this field of research, we need an improved understanding of the radiocarbon marine reservoir correction for coastal waters of New Zealand. Here we report 170 new ΔR20 (1900–1950) measurements from around New Zealand made on pre-1950 marine shells and mollusks killed by the 1931 Napier earthquake. The influence of feeding method, living depth and environmental preference on ΔR is evaluated and we find no influence from these factors except for samples living at or around the high tide mark on rocky open coastlines, which tend to have anomalously low ΔR values. We examine how ΔR varies spatially around the New Zealand coastline and identify continuous stretches of coastline with statistically similar ΔR values. We recommend subdividing the New Zealand coast into four regions with different marine reservoir corrections: A: south and western South Island, ΔR20 –113 ± 33 yr, B: Cook Strait and western North Island, ΔR20 –171 ± 29 yr, C: northeastern North Island, ΔR20 –143 ± 18 yr, D: eastern North Island and eastern South Island, ΔR20 –70 ± 39 yr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Murexsul espinosus(Hutton, 1885), based on Pliocene fossils from Hawkes Bay and Palliser Bay, is recorded for the first time in Recent faunas off East Cape and Mahia Peninsula. Other taxa with similar distribution patterns off the south-eastern North Island are briefly discussed:Cominella excoriataFinlay, 1926,C. tolagaensisPonder, 1968,Buccinulum fuscozonatum(Suter, 1908) andB. colensoi(Suter, 1908). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparison of type specimens and additional material reveals that the poorly known taxon Ischnochiton granulifer Thiele, 1909 described from an unspecified locality in New Zealand, is specifically distinct from Ischnochiton luteoroseus Suter, 1907 with which it had been synonymised. The two species are redescribed and their distributions detailed. They are strongly allopatric off the north-eastern North Island of New Zealand and the sub-Antarctic islands south of New Zealand respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four new species of monoplacophorans are described from deep water in the New Zealand region: a new species of Rokopella (Neopilinidae) from the Chatham Rise, and a new Vema (Neopilinidae) and two new Micropilina species (Micropilinidae) from off the north-western North Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]