''Brasilennea minor'' is a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

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 ...

of air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

, a terrestrial

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

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

Cerionidae Cerionidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Urocoptoidea. Pre-2008 taxonomy According to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005), the family Cerionidae is ...

, from the Paleocene Itaboraí Basin, Brazil.Salvador, R.B.; Rowson, B.; Simone, L.R.L. 2011. "Rewriting the fossil history of Cerionidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata): new family assignment of the Brazilian Palaeocene genus ''Brasilennea'' Maury, 1935". ''

Journal of Molluscan Studies The ''Journal of Molluscan Studies'' is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Malacological Society of London, covering research in malacology.

'' 77: 445–447. ''Brasilennea minor'' is the smallest species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Brasilennea ''Brasilennea'' is a fossil genus of small to medium-sized air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropods in the family Cerionidae. The genus is known only from the Brazilian Paleocene Itaboraí Basin, in Rio de Janeiro.Salvador, ...

''; it was originally described as a smaller variant of '' Brasilennea arethusae'' (as reflected by its specific epithet), but was later raised to the rank of species.Brito, I.M. 1967. Gastrópodos continentais do Paleoceno do estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Boletim de Geologia do Instituto de Geociências da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 1: 7-28.

References

Cerionidae Paleocene gastropods Gastropods described in 1956 {{Cerionidae-stub