Ciliopagurus obesus, a new species of Oligocene hermit crab from northwest Belgium

The basal portion of the Belsele-Waas Clay Member (Boom Clay Formation, Rupelian, Oligocene) as exposed at the Scheerders van Kerchove (SVK) clay pit, southwest of Sint-Niklaas (province of Oost-Vlaanderen, NW Belgium), has recently yielded material of a diogenid hermit crab with annulations and a stridulatory apparatus on the inner surface of the cheliped. This is here described as a new taxon, Ciliopagurus obesus n. sp., documenting one of the rare instances where a fossil paguroid may be assigned with certainty to an extant genus. Previous records of fossil hermit crabs (Paguroidea) are listed.