''Kurtziella plumbea'' 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 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 ...

Mangeliidae Mangeliidae is a monophyletic family of small to medium-sized, predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. Bouchet, P. (2011). Mangeliidae P. Fischer, 1883. In: MolluscaBase (2016). Accessed through: World Regis ...

Description

The length of the shell attains 10 mm. The small shell is yellowish, with 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 ...

a faint dark band in front of the suture and an obscure dark line at the periphery, with a dark flush on 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 ...

. The shell containssix whorls, including a minute 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 ...

followed by a minutely reticulated second whorl, and then by the adult

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 ...

. The suture is distinct, slightly appressed, the anal fasciole occupying the space between it and an angular shoulder. The axial sculpture consists of (on the penultimate whorl, 15) narrow, sharp, arcuate ribs extending from the suture over the periphery, with wider interspaces. There are also minute incremental lines roughening the spirals. The spiral sculpture consists of numerous minutely channeled grooves with wider flattish interspaces (the latter sometimes with a smaller median groove) covering the whole surface. 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 narrow, with a wide very shallow

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 ...

. The outer lip is thin, sharp, body erased. The columella is straight, axis pervious, gyrate. The siphonal canal is hardly differentiated.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 ''Mangilia (Kurtziella) alesidota'')

Distribution

This marine species occurs off

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, USA, and Pacific

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

References

* W. O. Addicott. 1959. ''Late Pleistocene Invertebrates from Punta Cabras, Baja California, Mexico''. ''American Museum Novitates'' 1925:1–33 * A. M. Keen. 1971. ''Sea Shells of Tropical West America 1-1064''

External links

Tucker, J.K. 2004 ''Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)''. ''Zootaxa'' 682:1–1295.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtziella Plumbea plumbea Gastropods described in 1843