Austrotoma inexpectata
| Austrotoma inexpectata Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
| Order: | Neogastropoda |
| Family: | Pseudomelatomidae |
| Genus: | Austrotoma |
| Species: | †A. inexpectata
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Austrotoma inexpectata A. W. B. Powell, 1944
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Austrotoma inexpectata is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc, in the family Pseudomelatomidae.[2] Fossils of the species date to the early Miocene strata of the Bass Basin of Tasmania, Australia.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
Shell ovate-biconic, with short spire, three-fourths height of aperture. Whorls rounded except for a moderately broad, shallowly excavated shoulder. The narrowly rounded shoulder angle is at the middle of the spire-whorls, but above the greatest peripheral convexity of the body-whorl. The surface is sculptured with closely spaced spiral threads and cords crossed on the early spire-whorls by numerous narrow!y rounded axial folds. There are no axials on the body-whorl apart from irregular growth lines. There is a narrow subsutural fold. Spire-whorls with 10 fine, spaced threads on the shoulder, 4 to 5 primary cords with intermediates from the shoulder angle to the lower suture and about 32 on the body-whorl from below the shoulder angle. The cords are weak over the upper half of the base, but quite strong below. The axial folds on the early whorls number from 26 to 28. The protoconch is quite typical, as described above. The anterior canal is very short and deeply notched. Fasciole margined by a sharp ridge.[3]
The holotype of the species has a height of 22.5 mm (0.89 in), and a diameter of 11.5 mm (0.45 in), while a paratype also viewed by Powell had a height of 28.5 mm (1.12 in), and a diameter of 13 mm (0.51 in).[3]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1944.[3] The holotype was collected prior to 1944 from Fossil Bluff, near Wynyard, Tasmania, Australia. It is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[4][1]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in early Miocene strata of the Bass Basin of Tasmania, Australia, including the Freestone Cove Sandstone.[4][5]
References
- ^ a b "Austrotoma inexpecta". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
- ^ Austrotoma inexpectata A. W. B. Powell, 1944 †. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 2 March 2026.
- ^ a b c Powell, A. W. B. (1944). "The Australian Tertiary Mollusca of the Family Turridae". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 3: 3–68. ISSN 0067-0464. JSTOR 42905993. Wikidata Q58676624. 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.
- ^ Darragh, Thomas A. (August 2024). "A checklist of Australian marine Cenozoic Mollusca". Memoirs of Museum Victoria. 83: 37–206. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.2024.83.02. ISSN 1447-2546. Wikidata Q136396722.