The perisphinctid ammonite Sulaites n. gen. from the upper Jurassic of the Indo-Southwest Pacific

Abstract

The new genus Sulaites comprises the mainly Late Oxfordian species group of “Perisphinctes” sularus and moluccanus, Boehm spp., originally described from the Sula Islands of eastern Indonesia, and the Late Oxfordian-?Early Kimmeridgian species group of “Pseudoparaboliceras aramaraii” Gerth, originally described from Irian Jaya. The designated type-species of Sulaites is Perisphinctes sularus Boehm 1907. All syntypes of P. sularus and moluccanus have been destroyed. Because no microconchs resembling Boehm's illustrated specimens are available from Sula, a complete microconch from Papua New Guinea is designated as the neotype. “P.” moluccanus is included in the type-species. Both Gerth's (1965) genus-group name Pseudoparaboliceras and species epithet aramaraii have no designated types and are therefore nomina nuda. The substitute name proposed is Sulaites gerthi n. sp. Sulaites is known from Papua New Guinea, and probably New Zealand and Nepal.