''Bellastraea aurea'', common name the golden small star, 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 ...

Turbinidae, the turban snails.

Description

The height of the shell varies between 10 mm and 14 mm, its diameter between 12 mm and 19 mm. The small, solid, imperforate shell has a depressed-conic shape. Its color pattern is golden yellow or olive. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is low-conic and contains five

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 ...

s. These are scarcely convex above, and plicate at the sutures. The folds become fainter and frequently, bifurcating toward the periphery. The whorls are spirally lirate, the lirae below rather coarse, beaded, above finer, cutting the folds more or less into granules. 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 ...

generally descends toward 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 ...

, and is compressed toward the periphery, which is subangular except in large specimens. The oblique

is rather small and is pearly white. The columellar callus is dilated over the umbilical region, and excavated there, and with an indistinct denticle near its base.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
(described as ''Astralium aureum'')

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs in the shallow subtidal zone off

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Victoria and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

References

* Jonas, J.H. 1845. ''Neue conchylien.'' Malakozoologische Blätter 1845: 169–173 * Swainson, W. 1855. ''On the characters of Astele, a new division in the family of Trochinae or Trochiform shells; together with the description of another species of the same family''. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 3: 36–41, pl. 6 * Tenison-Woods, J.E. 1876. ''Description of new Tasmanian shells''. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1875: 134–162 * Tenison-Woods, J.E. 1877. ''On some new Tasmanian marine shells''. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1876: 131–159 * Pritchard, G.B. & Gatliff, J.H. 1902. ''Catalogue of the marine shells of Victoria. Part V''. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 14(2): 85–138 * May, W.L. 1921. ''A Checklist of the Mollusca of Tasmania''. Hobart, Tasmania : Government Printer 114 pp. * Cotton, B.C. 1959. ''South Australian Mollusca. Archaeogastropoda.'' Handbook of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia. Adelaide : South Australian Government Printer 449 pp. * Habe, T. 1959. ''Radulae of four gastropods from South Australia and New Zealand''. Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia 3: 37–38 * Iredale, T. & McMichael, D.F. 1962. ''A reference list of the marine Mollusca of New South Wales''. Memoirs of the Australian Museum 11: 1–109 * Macpherson, J.H. 1966. ''Port Philip Survey 1957–1963''. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 27: 201–288 * Wilson, B. 1993. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Williams, S.T. (2007). ''Origins and diversification of Indo-West Pacific marine fauna: evolutionary history and biogeography of turban shells (Gastropoda, Turbinidae).'' Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 573–592.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellastraea Aurea

aurea Aurea, golden in Latin, may refer to: * Aurea (car), a former Italian automobile manufactured in Turin from 1921 to 1930 * Aurea (singer) (born 1987), Portuguese singer * Aurea Alexandrina, a kind of opiate or antidote * Áurea, a municipality in ...

Gastropods described in 1844