''Mangelia limata'' is an extinct 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 ...

, known from one

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

.https://archive.org/details/bulletinso93739192122corn Bulletins of American Paleontology 9.37 (1922)

Description

The shell is 9 mm long and 3.5 mm in diameter. It is nearly smooth and porcellaneous. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is slightly shorter than the narrow

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 ...

. The protoconch consists of three smooth convex

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, then a half whorl finely and closely ribbed. Three and a half subsequent whorls consist in

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 ...

of narrow, slightly oblique ribs which pass across the spire-whorls between sutures. 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 follow down the anterior canal to its tip. The spaces between the ribs are wide, flat and smooth. The tops and sides of the ribs are etched with fine subobsolete spiral lines. The

is linear-elliptical. The outer lip is somewhat thickened by the last rib, and smooth within. The anterior canal is long and straight.

Distribution

This fossil was found in the Gatun Stage of

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

References

External links

Worldwide Mollusc Species Data Base: ''Mangelia limata''

Fossilworks : ''Mangelia ecuadoriana''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q39091357

limata Limata was a Roman era city of Byzacena, in Roman North Africa.Joseph Bingham, ''Origines Ecclesiasticae'' Volume 3 (Straker, 1843p236 It was home to the Bishop, Purpurius, one of the founders of Donatist Donatism was a Christian sect leading ...

Gastropods described in 1922