''Aforia goniodes'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Cochlespiridae Cochlespiridae is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. This family is not well differentiated morphologically, and there is poor congruence betwe ...

Description

The shell size varies between 40 mm and 85 mm (Original description) The high, narrow shell has a biconical shape. It is subscalar, with a long, unconstricted base and a subequal-sided snout, angulated with an expressed keel, and with regular fine spiral threads all over. The axial

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

consists of only fine, regular, close, hair-like line of growth. The spiral sculpture shows in the middle of each

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

a strong angulation formed by the straight drooping line of the shoulder and the straight contracting line down to the inferior suture. The angulation is pinched out into a sharp round-edged keel. There are fine sharpish threads on the whole surface pretty equally distributed and of equal strength. Of these there are on the penultimate whorl below the keel about six. They are parted by flat broadish intervals, strongly scored with the lines of growth. The colour of the shell is white under a yellow epidermis. The spire is high, narrow, conical, with profile-lines interrupted by the straight-lined contraction of the shell between the keels of the successive whorls. The apex (eroded) is small and rounded. The spire contains 6-7 whorls. Their profile consists of two straight lines meeting in the keel which bisects the whorls; above is a slowly sloping shoulder, and below a gradual contraction to the suture. The

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

is scarcely convex on the conical base, which contracts with great regularity to the long, nearly equal-sided snout. The suture is fine, linear, but well defined. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is club-shaped, being rhomboidal above, with a long narrow

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is ...

below. The outer lip is high-arched and then straight along the siphonal canal. Its edge retreats at once to the left, and forms a remote, deep, rounded sinus in the shoulder above the keel. Below this it sweeps out into a high and prominent shoulder. The inner lip is a little concave at the junction of the body and columella, which is straight above, but towards the point is obliquely cut off with a long, narrow, twisted edge, and bends a good deal to the left. Robert Boog Watson B.A., F.R.S.E., F.L.S, ''Mollusca of H.M.S. ‘Challenger’ Expedition.—Part VIII''; Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, Volume 15, Issue 87, pages 388–412, October 1881
(described as ''Pleurotoma (Surcula) goniodes'')

Distribution

This species is distributed in the cold waters along Patagonia,

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

, the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

and the

South Shetlands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 19 ...

References

External links

*
Kantor Y.I., Harasewych M.G. & Puillandre N. (2016). ''A critical review of Antarctic Conoidea (Neogastropoda).'' Molluscan Research. DOI: 10.1080/13235818.2015.1128523
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aforia Goniodes goniodes Gastropods described in 1881