''Colus barbarinus'' 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 ...

Colidae The Colidae are a taxonomic family of large sea snails, belonging to the superfamily Buccinoidea. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Colidae Gray, 1857. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/ap ...

, the true whelks and the like.

Description

(Description as ''Colus (Aulacofusus) bristolensis'') The small shell measures 23.5 mm. It is white under an olivaceous periostracum. The shell contains six rounded

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 and a very minute (decorticated)

protoconch A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called ...

. The suture is distinct and not appressed. The spiral

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 (on the penultimate whorl about 14) shallow grooves, becoming fainter on 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 ...

, with much wider flat interspaces. The axial sculpture consists of faint incremental lines. 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 13 mm wide and semilunate. The outer lip is sharp, thin and arcuate. The body shows a thin coat of whitish ename. The columella is short, twisted and attenuated in front The

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 ...

is short, wide and recurved. Dall, W. H. (1919). Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean in the collection of the United States National Museum. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 56 (2295): 293-371
/ref> (Description as ''Colus (Aulacofusus) barbarinus'') The length of the small, pale gray shell attains 20 mm. It is solid. It contains about six

s. The

is compressed axially and rather acute. The suture is distinct and not appressed. The whorls are conspicuously rounded; there is no axial sculpture except faint incremental lines, the apical whorls are decorticated; spiral

consists of incised striae with slightly rounded wider interspaces, about a dozen on the penultimate whorl, quite uniform over the whole of the

. The

is ovate and measures 10 mm. The outer lip is thin and sharp. The white inner lip is erased. The short columella is short. The short

is rather wide and somewhat recurved.

Distribution

This marine species occurs off

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

References

* Turgeon, D., Quinn, J. F., Bogan, A. E., Coan, E. V., Hochberg, F. G., Lyons, W. G., Mikkelsen, P. M., Neves, R. J., Roper, C. F. E., Rosenberg, G., Roth, B., Scheltema, A., Thompson, F. G., Vecchione, M., Williams, J. D. (1998). Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: mollusks. 2nd ed. American Fisheries Society Special Publication, 26. American Fisheries Society: Bethesda, MD (USA). ISBN 1-888569-01-8. IX, 526 + cd-rom pp * Kosyan A.R. & Kantor Yu.I. (2013). Revision of the genus Aulacofusus Dall, 1918 (Gastropoda: Buccinidae). Ruthenica: The Russian Malacological Journal. 23(1): 1-33.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colus barbarinus Colidae Gastropods described in 1980