''Kurtzia granulatissima'' is a species of
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 in the
family Mangeliidae.
Description
The length of the shell attains 7 mm, its diameter 3 mm.
The small, yellowish white shell is slender, andacute. It has a small smooth
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 ...
of a1½
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 flo ...
and 4½ subsequent sculptured whorls. The suture is distinct, not appressed, undulated by the ends of the ribs. The whorls show a prominent shoulder. The spiral
sculpture consists of small sharp close-set threads covering the whole surface most prominent in the interspaces between the ribs and given a frosty appearance by the intersection of close fine sharp slightly elevated incremental lines. The other axial sculpture consists of (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 ...
eight strong rounded ribs with wider interspaces extending to 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 ...
from the preceding suture and not continuous up the spire. The
aperture is narrow. The
anal sulcus The anal sulcus, also called the anal sinus or anal canal, in Gastropods is a notch, a shelly tube at the top of the aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and fo ...
is wide and round but with no marked fasciole or subsutural callus. The outer
lip is thick, infolded, the fine sculpture continued over the front of the fold. The inner lip is erased. The
columella is straight. The siphonal canal is very short and wide but distinct.
Dall (1919) Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean; Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, vol. 56 (1920) (described as ''Philbertia aegialea'')
Distribution
This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean off Central America
.
References
* Mörch, O. A. L. "Beitrage zur Molluskenfauna Central-Amerika's." Malakozoologische Blätter 7 (1860): 66–106.
External links
Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. Zootaxa 682:1–1295.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtzia Granulatissima
granulatissima
Gastropods described in 1860