''Raphitoma perpulchra'' 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 ...

mollusc 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 esti ...

, in the family

Raphitomidae Raphitomidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". '' Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 3 ...

Description

The length of the shell reaches 10 mm. (Original description) "''The small shell is turriculate and fusiform. It has an elevated spire and 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. The whorls are longitudinally costated with 11 - 12 ribs 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 ...

. It is transversely striated with sharp and elevated striae. The outer lip is curved and thickened on the outside. It has a large and deep sinus at the suture. 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 ...

is short and very open.''"Wood, Searles Valentine. A Monograph of the Crag Mollusca: With Descriptipns of Shells from the Upper Tertiaries of the British Isles. No. 1. Johnson, 1848
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Distribution

Fossils of this extinct marine species were found in Pliocene strata in Belgium and the Crag Formation, Sutton, England.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q85796014 perpulchra Gastropods described in 1848