A new species of portunid crab from the early Pleistocene Old Pera beds ofJamaica

The Plio-Pleistocene of the Coastal Group, Jamaica, contains a diverse faun a of crabs, superior to that known from this interval on any other Antillea n island. A new species described herein is the first crab from the early P leistocene Old Pera beds, Manchioneal Formation. This taxon, Euphylax forti spinosus sp. nov., has a subovate carapace, a long orbitofrontal margin wit h deep corneal depressions and four pairs of anterolateral spines; the firs t pair are diminutive. It represents the first record of the genus Euphylax Stimpson in the Jamaican fossil record, whose present distribution is conf ined to the Pacific coast of tropical Central America and the eastern tropi cal Pacific.