Nebrodites Burckhardt, 1910

Cecca, Fabrizio & Savary, Bérengère, 2007, Palaeontological study of Middle Oxfordian- Early Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) ammonites from the Rosso Ammonitico of Monte Inici (north-western Sicily, Italy), Geodiversitas 29 (4), pp. 507-548 : 524

Genus Nebrodites Burckhardt, 1910

TYPE SPECIES. — Simoceras agrigentinum Gemmellaro, 1872 .

REMARKS

Several authors (Brochwicz-Lewinski 1973; Meléndez 1989; Sarti 1990, 1993) have discussed the systematic position of this genus within the subfamily Idoceratinae Spath, 1924 and its relationships with the genus Passendorferia . Caracuel et al. (1999) have included Nebrodites within the subfamily Passendorferiinae instead of Idoceratinae . The appearance of the genus Nebrodites has long been dated to the Early Kimmeridgian Strombecki Zone ( Olóriz 1978). Benzaggagh & Atrops (1997) and Caracuel et al. (1999) have recently figured earlier forms of the Platynota Zone. However, Schweigert & Callomon (1997) lowered to the Bimammatum Zone, Hauffianum Subzone, the age of the type level of the species Nebrodites macerrimus (Quenstedt, 1888) . These authors (1997: 35) seem to question (because of the unusually early occurrence of a Nebrodites - like morphology?) the systematic position of the species macerrimus within Nebrodites because they used this generic name between inverted commas and consider it the microconch of the species Presimoceras nodulatum (Quenstedt, 1888) . A Nebrodites -like morphology described below as Nebrodites aff. contortus ( Neumayr, 1871) has been found at Monte Inici in a bed assigned with doubt to the Hauffianum Subzone. Careful investigations in the distal areas of the Mediterranean Tethys are needed to improve our knowledge of the phyletic relationships between the typical Nebrodites and the forms included in the subfamily Passendorferiinae , a point already stressed by Caracuel et al. (1999). One can ask whether the subfamilies Passendorferiinae and Idoceratinae are actually two distinct taxons or just a single lineage. Finally, Villaseñor & Olóriz (2006) have demonstrated that the Mexican forms of Idoceras originally described by Burckhardt (1906) do belong to the family Ataxioceratidae , making the use of the subfamily Idoceratinae unnecessary.