First Record of a Fossil Verrucid Barnacle in California—Verruca Digitali Sp. Nov. (Cirripedia: Thoracica) from the Late Miocene

A new cirripede (Verrucomorpha: Verrucidae) Verruca digitali Buckeridge sp. nov. is described from the late Miocene in Orange County, California. The discovery of dozens of specimens in siliceous shale of the upper Monterey Formation is remarkable because both living and fossil Verrucidae are rare in the Northeast Pacific and adjacent terranes and the stratigraphic sequence is characteristically bathyal in origin. We propose that these specimens of V. digitali were epiphytic, being attached to seaweed that was either planktic or uprooted and displaced downslope. This species is similar to Verruca alaskana Pilsbry, a Pliocene species from Alaska, and Verruca laevigata Sowerby, an extant species inhabiting shallow waters off the west coast of South America. Verruca digitali is a likely Miocene candidate for a “Verruca laevigata bioseries.”