Argalista kingi
| Argalista kingi Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Vetigastropoda |
| Order: | Trochida |
| Family: | Colloniidae |
| Genus: | Argalista |
| Species: | †A. kingi
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Argalista kingi A. W. B. Powell, 1938
| |
Argalista kingi is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Colloniidae.[1] Fossils of the species date to the early Pleistocene strata of the Castlepoint Formation at Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
Shell small, globose-turbinate, imperforate. Spire rather raised for the genus; about half height of aperture. Whorls four, including flattened, smooth protoconch. Post-nuclear whorls sculptured with flattened spiral cinguli, having linear nterspaces. There are about ten cinguli at the end of the penultimate whorl, and on the body-whorl they continue over on to the base, but are absent from a broad zone surrounding the umbilical area. This zone is a shallow callused depression in the adult, but there is a definitely open and narrow umbilicus in younger shells. The basal lip is slightly effuse. Umbilical depression bordered by a slight fold bearing very weak crenulations. Aperture circular, comparatively small. Peristome thickening rapidly within the aperture.[2]
The holotype of the species has a height of 2.5 mm (0.098 in), and a diameter of 2 mm (0.079 in).[2] It is similar in appearance to Eutinochilus impervius, but can be identified due to A. kingi being more tightly coiled, its adult size being significantly smaller, and by having more of an umbilical depression.[2]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A.W.B. Powell in 1938.[2] The holotype was collected from the Lighthouse Reef, Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand in 1924, and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[3][4]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in early Pleistocene (Nukumaruan stage) strata of the Castlepoint Formation at Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand, dating to c. 2.40 million years ago.[3][5] It is only rarely found at its type locality.[6]
References
- ^ Argalista kingi A. W. B. Powell, 1938 †. 2 March 2026. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species.
- ^ a b c d Powell, A. W. B. (1938). "A Pliocene Molluscan Faunule from Castle Point". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 2: 157–164. ISSN 0067-0464. JSTOR 42905977. Wikidata Q58676603. This article incorporates text from this source, which is under a CC BY 4.0 license.
- ^ a b Blom, Wilma M. (2025). "Annotated Catalogue of Fossil and Extant Molluscan Types in the Auckland War Memorial Museum". Bulletin of the Auckland Museum. 22. doi:10.32912/BULLETIN/22. ISSN 1176-3213. OCLC 1550165130. Wikidata Q135397912.
- ^ "Argalista kingi". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
- ^ Spencer, H. G.; Marshall, B. A.; Willan, R. C. (June 2009). "Checklist of New Zealand living Mollusca". New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume 1. Kingdom Animalia Radiata, Lopotrochozoa, Deuteromstomia. 1: 196–219. Wikidata Q125720861.
- ^ Buckeridge, John S.; Beu, Alan G.; Gordon, Dennis P. (19 September 2018). "Depositional environment of the early Pleistocene Castlepoint Formation, New Zealand: a canyon fill in situ". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 61 (4): 524–542. doi:10.1080/00288306.2018.1516227. ISSN 0028-8306. Wikidata Q129215981.