Ringicula marwicki
| Ringicula marwicki Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Superorder: | Ringiculimorpha |
| Family: | Ringiculidae |
| Genus: | Ringicula |
| Species: | †R. marwicki
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Ringicula marwicki A. W. B. Powell, 1935
| |
Ringicula marwicki is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc, in the family Ringiculidae.[1][2] Fossils of the species date to early Miocene strata of the west coast of the Auckland Region, New Zealand.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
Shell small, ovate, solid. Body-whorl inflated. Spire narrowly conical, about two-thirds height of aperture. Whorls 41⁄2, including a small, smooth, dome-shaped protoconch of about 11⁄2 whorls, the tip flattened and slightly tilted. Suture impressed and bordered below by a fairly strong groove. Spire whorls smooth, body-whorl sculptured with about 16 incised lines, five of them being between the sutures. Outer lip broken away below, but, by the remaining upper portion, it is shown to be strongly variced. Parietal wall with a strong fold and two more, equally strong, on the columella.[3]
The holotype of the species measures 3 mm (0.12 in) in height and 2 mm (0.079 in) in diameter.[3] The species is morphologically similar to R. torquata, but can be identified due to R. marwicki being smaller, having a less broadly conic spire and stronger subsutural border.[3]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1935.[3] The holotype was collected at an unknown date prior to 1935 from Te Waharoa Bay, south of Muriwai, Auckland Region (then more commonly known as Motutara), and is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.[4][5]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in early Miocene strata of the Tirikohua Formation of New Zealand, on the west coast of the Waitākere Ranges of the Auckland Region, New Zealand.[4]
References
- ^ Ringicula marwicki (A. W. B. Powell, 1935) †. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 20 January 2026.
- ^ Maxwell, P.A. (2009). "Cenozoic Mollusca". In Gordon, D.P. (ed.). New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume one. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-877257-72-8.
- ^ a b c d Powell, A. W. B. (1935). "Tertiary Mollusca from Motutara, West Coast, Auckland". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 1: 327–340. ISSN 0067-0464. JSTOR 42905961. Wikidata Q58676576. 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.
- ^ "Ringicula marwicki". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 20 January 2026.