Fragilariopsis tigris sp. nov., a New Late Pliocene Antarctic Continental Shelf Diatom with Biostratigraphic Promise

A new species within the genus Fragilariopsis, F. tigris, is described and illustrated using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. This species is restricted to a single 8-meter-thick diatom unit within the 585-meter-long section of alternating diatomites and diamictites recovered in the upper portion of the ANtarctic geological DRILLing (ANDRILL) McMurdo Ice Shelf Project (MIS) AND-1B marine sediment core. This new taxon from a diverse, well-preserved diatom assemblage is inferred to be the youngest member of the well-documented, biostratigraphically useful F. praeinterfrigidaria – F. interfrigidaria – F. weaveri lineage and may represent a near-shore corollary to the open-ocean species F. weaveri. Based on available chronostratigraphic data from AND-1B, F. tigris appears to be restricted to the earliest late Pliocene (first occurrence datum ~3.2 Ma) and is extinct before 3.0 Ma.