''Kelletia lischkei'' 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 ...

of large sea snail, or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the

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

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. Acc ...

, the true whelks.

Description

''Kelletia lischkei'' is a medium-to-large species of

buccinid The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), 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. (201 ...

whelk.

Distribution

The species is endemic to the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

, and is found in coastal waters off of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

and eastern Japan. Fossils of ''K. lischkei'' occur in the Middle

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

fossil record of Japan,Ogasawara, K. 2002. Cenozoic Gastropoda. In: Ikeya, N., Hirano, H., Ogasawara, K. eds. The database of Japanese fossil type specimens described during the 20th Century (Part 2). Palaeontological Society of Japan, Special Paper 40. University of Tokyo, Tokyo. and the species bears a resemblance to the extinct fossil species '' Kelletia brevis''.

References

External links

World Register of Marine Species: ''Kelletia lischkei'' (Kuroda, 1938)
Buccinidae Gastropods described in 1938 Marine gastropods {{Buccinidae-stub