Cochlespira venusta
| Cochlespira venusta Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
| Order: | Neogastropoda |
| Family: | Cochlespiridae |
| Genus: | Cochlespira |
| Species: | †C. venusta
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Cochlespira venusta A. W. B. Powell, 1944
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Cochlespira venusta is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc, in the family Cochlespiridae.[1] Fossils of the species date to early to middle Miocene strata of the Port Phillip Basin of Victoria, Australia.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
SSlender, fusiform, with tall spire and long, straight, anterior canal. Whorls keeled and coronated medially by strong upcurved tubercles, 18 per whorl. Shoulder with a subsutural band of recurrently oblique oval gemmules, and two similar but much weaker bands immediately above the coronated keel. Between the subsutural and lower gemmulate bands the shoulder is smooth except for weakly defined sinus growth curves. From the keel to the lower suture there are four strong, closely spaced gemmulate spiral bands. On the body-whorl there are 27 gemmulate spirals which extend right to the tip of the anterior canal. One vemmulate cord much stronger than the rest emerges from the lower suture and encircles the base.[2]
The holotype of the species measures 14.8 mm (0.58 in) in height and has a diameter of 5.8 mm (0.23 in).[2] It can be distinguished from other members of the genus Cochlespira by its strongly gemmate spiral chords, as well as its gemmate margining cord,[3] and by having finer spiral cords, a weaker keel and a more flattened protoconch relative to C. semiplana.[4] The species has a narrowly fusiform shell, keeled spire whorls which are coronated medially by strongly upcurving tubercles.[3]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1944, using the name Coronasyrinx venusta and identifying it as the type species of the genus Coronasyrinx.[2] In 1969, Powell recombined the species, leading to the currently accepted scientific name Cochlespira venusta.[3] The holotype was collected prior to 1944 from Fossil Beach, Balcombe Bay, Victoria, and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[5][6]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in early to middle Miocene strata of the Port Phillip Basin of Victoria, Australia, including the Puebla Formation and Gellibrand Formation.[5][7]
References
- ^ a b Cochlespira venusta (A. W. B. Powell, 1944) †. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 23 February 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 c Powell, A. W. B. (9 September 1969). "The family Turridae in the Indo-Pacific. Part 2. The subfamily Turriculinae". Indo-Pacific mollusca. 2 (10): 215–416. ISSN 0073-7240. Wikidata Q136806872.
- ^ Long, D. C. (1981). "Late Eocene and Early Oligocene Turridae (Gastropoda: Prosobranchiata) of the Brown's Creek and Glen Aire Clays, Victoria, Australia" (PDF). Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria. 42 (1): 15–55. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.1981.42.03. ISSN 0083-5986. Wikidata Q56195002.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Cochlespira venusta". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 23 February 2026.
- ^ 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.