PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 108(3):533-550. 1995. New records of azooxanthellate stony corals (Cnidaria: Scleractinia and Stylasteridae) from the Neogene of Panama and Costa Rica Stephen D. Cairns Department of Invertebrate Zoology, NHB-163, W-329, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 20560, U.S.A Abstract.— Five new species of azooxanthellate Scleractinia are described from the Panamanian-Costa Rican Neogene: Septastraea alti spina, Antillocy-athus gracilis, Paracyathus adetos, Oxysmilia pliocenica, and Asterosmilia ir-regularis. Three additional species of azooxanthellate stony corals are also reported for the first time in the fossil record: Gardineria minor, Schizocyathus fissilis, and Stylaster roseus. The records of S. roseus are the first fossil occur-rence of a stylasterid in the western Atlantic. The specimens that form the basis for this paper were collected in the first seven years (1986-1992) of the Panama Paleontology Project, a multiphyletic survey of the ma-rine invertebrate Neogene fauna of the Neo-tropics, especially southern Central Amer-ica. The purpose of the first phase of the project was to determine the biotic response to the Neogene closure of the Caribbean-eastern Pacific seaway through a detailed analysis of the stratigraphic and geographic distributions of various invertebrate groups. An early review of this project was pub-lished (Coates et al. 1992, Collins 1993), which included a general description of the Panama and Costa Rica localities, their lith-ostratigraphy, and their biostratigraphic correlations. A much more detailed analysis of the stratigraphy of various groups, in-cluding Scleractinia, is now in preparation (Collins & Coates in lett) as an edited vol-ume. In that volume I (Cairns 1 996) list and document the 18 species of azooxanthellate stony corals that are known to occur in the Panamanian and Costa Rican Neogene, eight of which are discussed herein, i.e., the five new species and the three previously described species that are new to the fossil record. Species synonymies are considered to be complete or give a reference to a complete synonymy. In the Material Examined sec-tions, each record begins with a PPP locality number, followed by the number of speci-mens in that lot, followed by its catalog number. The PPP collection sites, with their original "CJ" field numbers, are listed in the Appendix. Absolute ages were derived from biostratigraphic dating using planktic foraminifera, calcareous nannoplankton, and the geological time scale of Berggren, et al(1985). The following abbreviations are used in the text: GCD, Greater Calicular Diameter; GCD:LCD, Ratio of greater calicular di-ameter to lesser calicular diameter; H:W, Ratio of height to width of a corallum; PD: GCD, Ratio of pedicel diameter to greater calicular diameter; PPP, Panama Paleon-tology Project; Sx, Cx, Px, Cycle of septa, costae, or pali (respectively) designated by numerical subscript; USGS, United States Geological Survey; USNM, United Stales National Museum (part of the National Mu-
BioStor
