Reply to discussion of Campanile trevorjacksoni sp. nov. (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from the Eocene of Jamaica—at last, a name for the first fossil used in intercontinental biostratigraphic correlation (de la Beche 1827)

✍ Scribed by Stephen K. Donovan; Roger W. Portell

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 59 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0072-1050
• DOI: 10.1002/gj.1154

✦ Synopsis

Simon Mitchell has questioned a number of the assumptions made in our recent paper (Portell and Donovan. 2008. Campanile trevorjacksoni sp. nov. (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from the Eocene of Jamaica: at last, a name for the first fossil used in intercontinental biostratigraphic correlation (de la Beche 1827). Geological Journal 43: 542-551). It is always stimulating when a research paper excites comment, although we have never seen it happen so fast; S.K.D. mailed an offprint to Mitchell only about a month before his discussion was submitted. We have obviously touched a raw nerve. Reading Mitchell's submission, we note that he questions our accuracy and veracity in three areas: (i) the accuracy with which we quote the year of publication of two memoirs; (ii) our interpretation of De la Beche's stratigraphic attribution of certain rocks in Jamaica; and (iii) whether Campanile trevorjacksoni Portell and Donovan is truly conspecific with De la Beche's giant cerith. We will consider these points in turn.