On the discovery of fossil land snails (Dendropupa sp.) from the Minto Formation of central New Brunswick, Canada.

The Pennsylvanian-aged (late Bashkirian-early Moscovian) Minto Formation of central New Brunswick was previously studied for its diverse paleoflora, rare invertebrate fauna (trigonotarbid) and rare disarticulated vertebrate fauna. The Minto Formation has been interpreted to represent a peat-forming wetland that experienced occasional euryhaline influence within back-barrier or delta-front depositional settings. A recently discovered fossil locality situated along the southern shoreline of Grand Lake, yields a diverse array of plant fossils, vertebrate trace fossils, and invertebrate body fossils. Two new terrestrial gastropods (NBMG 21521) are described that broadly conform to the genus Dendropupa, with a similar apex and post-apical whorls. However, they differ in morphology from Dendropupa by possessing axial (longitudinal) sculpture on the shell. Species of Dendropupa exhibit either fine axial lirae or pronounced axial lirae along their shell that are not preserved in the Minto Formation specimens. This is possibly because of the preservation as the shells as internal molds with only fragments of the original shell remaining. Both Minto Formation specimens exhibit the same morphology but differ in size, suggesting one is an adult and one a juvenile. The diminutive size of the shells suggests that they may represent the smallest known Carboniferous land snails in the fossil record. These two gastropods are associated with invertebrate ichnofossils (Gordia, Helminthoidichnites, and cf. Helminthopsis). These traces are similar in width to the body fossils, and trail behind them implying a trace and trace-maker relationship, broadening the tracemaker interpretations for those ichnogenera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]