''Buccinum lyperum'' 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 ...

Buccinidae The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Buccinidae. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. A ...

, the true whelks. A few authors use the epithet "lyperium"

Description

The size of an adult shell varies between 51 mm and 75 mm.

Distribution

This species is found in the North Pacific Ocean along the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

and

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...

References

* Baily J.L. 1961. ''A new name for Buccinum tenue'', Gray, 1839 preoccupied. Veliger, 3 (4): 93–94. * Kosuge S. 1972. ''Illustrations of type specimens of molluscs described by William Healey Dall''; Tokyo, 65 p.
D. O. Alexeyev, A. V. Gornichnykh , ''New gastropod species Buccinum frausseni sp. nov. (Gastropoda, Buccinidae), with comments on intraspecific structure of Buccinum scalariforme Beck in Møller, 1842''; Ruthenica, 2009, vol. 19, No. 1: 1-18

External links

Gastropods.com : ''Buccinum tenue tenue''; accessed : 19 June 2011
Buccinidae Taxa named by William Healey Dall Gastropods described in 1919 {{Buccinidae-stub