First evidence of the Cretaceous decapod crustacean Protocallianassa from Sweden

An assemblage of the burrowing ghost shrimp, Protocallianassa faujasi, is described, providing the first evidence of this decapod species from Sweden. The fossils occur in successions of the informal earliest late Campanian Belemnellocamax balsvikensis zone at Åsen and the latest early Campanian B. mammillatus zone at Ivö Klack, both in the Kristianstad Basin of NE Skåne. Numerous, heavily calcified chelipeds were found within a restricted bed at Å sen that was rich in carbonate-cemented nodules. Based on the burrowing lifestyle of modern mud shrimps, we interpret these nodules as infilled burrow chambers. The low abundance of molluscs within the Protocallianassa beds is also consistent with analogous extant communities, indicating that a similar ecologically exclusive relationship ruled within the Late Cretaceous shallowmarine ecosystems.