''Neptunea heros'', common name : the heros neptune, 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 Buccinidae, the true whelks.

Description

(Original description by

J.E. Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

) The size of an adult shell varies between 60 mm and 175 mm. The elongate shell has a conical shape longer than the aperture. The

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 are convex. The two or three upper whorls have a strong central keel. The rest show irregularly placed distant rounder tubercles. 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 ...

is rounded, not keeled. The inside of the aperture is white. The erect egg-cases are ovate-oblong, on an expanded base and contracted beneath. The granular surface is deeply punctated. The white, opaque, outer coat of the shell is very much inclined to separate from the inner or central coat, which presents, where the outer coat is removed, a smooth surface of yellowish or brown colour.J.E. Gray (1850) in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London Volume: Part XVIII (1850–1851); Mollusca p.15, pl. VII
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Distribution

This species is distributed in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and along Canada; it is also circum-Arctic and can be found along

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and Korea

References

* MacGinitie N. (1959) ''Marine Mollusca of Point Barrow, Alaska.'' Proceedings of the United States National Museum 109: 59–208. ublished 18 September 1959page(s): 124 * Brunel, P., L. Bosse, and G. Lamarche. 1998. ''Catalogue of the marine invertebrates of the estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence''. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 126. 405 p.

External links

Gastropods.com : ''Neptunea (Rugosa-group) heros''; accessed : 26 April 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neptunea Heros Buccinidae Gastropods described in 1850 Taxa named by John Edward Gray