''Penion sulcatus'' is a

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 ...

of medium-to-large

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

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 ...

whelk Whelk (also known as scungilli) is a common name applied to various kinds of sea snail. Although a number of whelks are relatively large and are in the family Buccinidae (the true whelks), the word ''whelk'' is also applied to some other marine ...

, commonly called the northern siphon whelk or kākara nui in

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

, 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 The Buccinidae are a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2010). Buccinidae. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. A ...

Description

''Penion sulcatus'' is a medium-to-large species of ''Penion'' siphon whelk. Powell A. W. B., ''New Zealand Mollusca'', William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 Shells are highly variable in sculpture and colouration, but shells are often dark with a white aperture.Willan, R.C., de C. Cook, S., Spencer, H.G., Creese, R.G., O’Shea, S., Jackson, G.D. Phylum Mollusca. In: de C. Cook, S.C. (eds.), ''New Zealand Coastal Marine Invertebrates 1'', 406 – 407. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, New Zealand The extinct species '' Penion exoptatus'', '' Penion clifdenensis'', and potentially also '' Penion marwicki'', may belong to the same evolutionary lineage as the extant species ''Penion sulcatus''. This hypothesis is based on geometric morphometric analysis of shell shape and size for all four taxa, as well as the analysis of morphometric variation exhibited all living species of ''Penion''.

Distribution

''Penion sulcatus'' is endemic to

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 ...

. The species is found of the entire North Island and northern South Island coasts. The species has an abundant fossil record in the North Island of New Zealand. ''P. sulcatus'' is benthic and is common on soft-sediments on the continental shelf Dell, R.K. 1962. New Zealand Marine Provinces - do they exist? Tuatara, 10: 43 - 52
Online Copy courtesy of New Zealand Electronic Text Collection
/ref> or within the subtidal rocky shore environment.

Ecology

''Penion sulcatus'' is a carnivore and is known to feed on mussels and '' Dosina zelandica zelandica''.

Human use

Shells found in middens of historic

settlements indicate that ''P. sulcatus'' may have been intentionally foraged as a food-source.

References

External links

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Taxon: ''Penion sulcatus'' Lamarck, 1816 (Species)

* ttp://www.nzfauna.ac.nz/penions Massey University NZ Fauna Scanned 3D model of ''Penion sulcatus''
Natural History Museum Rotterdam - Mollusca - Gastropoda - Buccinidae
{{Commons category Buccinidae Gastropods of New Zealand Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Gastropods described in 1816