A new genus of coleoid cephalopod from the Jackson Group (Late Eocene), Hinds County, Mississippi

A new genus Mississaepia and one new species Mississaepia mississippiensis is described based on two specimens of guard-like sheaths from the Bartonian (Eocene) Moodys Branch Formation, Town Creek, Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi and twenty-nine specimens from the Priabonian (Eocene) Yazoo Clay, Miss Lite Clay Pit, Cynthia, Hinds County, Mississippi. Mississaepia mississippiensis n. gen. differs from Belosaepia VOLTZ, in having a reduced more blunt spine, having a thin ventro-lateral wall which tapers anteriorly and lacking a pronounced ventral plate. The new genus also differs from Belemnosella NAEF known from the Moodys Branch Formation, Gosport Sand and Cook Mountain Formation in having a curved phragmocone. Due to its curved phragmocone and other belosaepiid-like morphological features, Mississaepia mississippiensis n. gen. is tentatively assigned to the family Belosaepiidae.