''Scissurella mirifica'' is a
species of minute
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
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
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* ...
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 or
micromollusk
A micromollusk is a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also ...
in the
family Scissurellidae, the little slit snails.
[Bouchet, P. (2013). ''Scissurella mirifica'' (A. Adams, 1862). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=493075 on 2013-02-16]
Description
The size of the shell varies between 1.2 mm and 2.5 mm. The depressed shell has an oval shape. The flattened
spire has a very wide and open
umbilicus. The entire surface of the 2½
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 is regularly and delicately finely clathrate. The
aperture is very oblique. The outer
lip recedes inwards.
Adams, Arthur (1862), On some new species of Scissurellidae from the seas of China and Japan; Annals and Magazine of Natural History vol. 10
(described in Latin as ''Anatomus mirificus'')
Distribution
This marine species occurs off the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
and the Society Islands; off Queensland, Australia.
References
* Jansen, P., 1999. ''The Australian Scissurellidae''. Conchiglia, 31(291):47-55.
* Geiger D.L. & Jansen P. (2004). ''New species of Australian Scissurellidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda) with remarks on Australian and Indo-Malayan species.'' Zootaxa 714:1-72
External links
To Encyclopedia of Life
To World Register of Marine Species
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q14323678
Scissurellidae
Gastropods described in 1862