''Penion proavitus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

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 ...

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

or whelk, belonging to the true whelk

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 ...

Buccinidae.WoRMS World Register of Marine Species: ''Penion proavitus'' (Finlay & Marwick, 1937) †
/ref>

Description

''Penion proavitus'' fossils are the earliest known specimens of ''

Penion ''Penion'' is a genus of large marine snails, commonly known as siphon whelks, classified within the mollusc family Austrosiphonidae, the true whelks.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Penion P. Fischer, 1884. Accessed through: World Regi ...

'' siphon whelks. The species was medium-to-large in size. It is possible that fossils of ''Penion proavitus'' represent a stem lineage that was the common ancestor of ''Penion'', ''

Kelletia ''Kelletia'' is a genus of large sea snails, whelks, a marine gastropod molluscs in the family Austrosiphonidae, the true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Fraussen, K. (2015). Kelletia Bayle in P. Fischer, 1884. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: ...

'' and ''

Antarctoneptunea ''Antarctoneptunea'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Austrosiphonidae, the true whelks. Distribution ''Antarctoneptunea'' marine snails occur in deep water surrounding New Zealand and in Southern Ocean encirc ...

'', instead of a species of ''Penion'' itself.

Distribution

Fossils of ''Penion proavitus'' are found in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The species lived in the seas surrounding Zealandia between 56 and 66 million million years ago ( Teurian stage).

References

External links

Auckland War Memorial Museum ''Penion proavitus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q39088013 Buccinidae Gastropods of New Zealand Extinct animals of New Zealand Taxa named by Harold John Finlay