''Vetulonia paucivaricosa'' 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 ...

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 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 e ...

in the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Seguenzioidea Seguenzioidea is a superfamily of minute to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda.Gofas, S. (2010). Seguenzioidea. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Marine Mollusca database. Accessed ...

Description

The shell grows to a height of 3.8 mm. (Described as ''Trochus cancellatus'') The rather thin shell forms a depressed cone, opaque, and lustreless. The

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

consists of oblique laminar ribs in the line of growth, which are crossed by as many but slighter spiral striae. There are about 20 ribs and striae 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 ...

. This sculpture covers the base, but the striae are wanting on the apex. The colour of the shell is pale yellowish-brown. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

is rather depressed. The shell contains 5-6 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 body whorl occupies three fifths of the shell. The apex is regular and compressed. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

is more round than oval, angulated above and below on the inner side. The outer lip is somewhat expanded and thickened. The inner lip is nearly straight, attached to the columella below the periphery. The umbilicus is rather narrow, with a deep perforation which exposes the inner whorls. Jeffreys, J. G. 1883. ''On the Mollusca procured during the 'Lightning' and 'Porcupine' Expeditions, 1868-1870''. (Part VI). Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1883: 88-115, pls. 19–20
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Distribution

This species occurs in the Atlantic Ocean in the

bathyal zone The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above, and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypelagi ...

of the

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and off

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, found at depths between 250 m and 805 m.

References

External links

Dautzenberg, P. (1889). Contribution à la faune malacologique des Iles Açores. Resultats des dragages effectués par le yacht l'Hirondelle pendant sa campagne scientifique de 1887. Révision des mollusques marins des Açores. Résultats des Campagnes Scientifiques Accomplies sur son Yacht par Albert Ier Prince Souverain de Monaco, I. Imprimerie de Monaco. 112 pp.; IV plates.

Dall, W. H. 1913. A ''new genus of Trochidae''. Nautilus 27: 86-87

Dall, W. H. 1927. ''Small shells from dredgings off the southeast coast of the United States by the United States Fisheries Steamer 'Albatross' in 1885 and 1886''. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 70(2667): 1-134

Serge GOFAS, Ángel A. LUQUE, Joan Daniel OLIVER,José TEMPLADO & Alberto SERRA (2021) - The Mollusca of Galicia Bank (NE Atlantic Ocean); European Journal of Taxonomy 785: 1–114

Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). ''European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification''. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vetulonia Paucivaricosa paucivaricosa Gastropods described in 1889