''Labiostrombus epidromis'', common name the swan conch, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Strombidae Strombidae, common name, commonly known as the true conchs, is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of medium-sized to very large sea snails in the superfamily (zoology), superfamily Stromboidea, and the Epifamily Neostromboid ...

, the true conchs.

Description

The typical size of the adult shell varies between 50 and 95 mm.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Central Indo-West Pacific,;off the

Ryukyus The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands ( Ōsumi, Tokara and Amami) and Okinawa Prefecture ( Daitō, Miyako, Y ...

, Japan, to Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

), and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

Phylogeny

In 2006, Latiolais and colleagues proposed a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

that attempts to show the

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

relationships of 34 species within the family Strombidae. The authors analysed 31 species in the genus ''

Strombus ''Strombus'' is a genus of medium to large sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the family (biology), family Strombidae, which comprises the true conchs and their immediate relatives. The genus ''Strombus'' was named by Swedi ...

'' including ''Labiostrombus epidromis'' (referred to as ''Strombus epidromis'' in their analysis), and three species in the allied genus ''

Lambis ''Lambis'' is a genus of large sea snails sometimes known as spider conchs, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the family Strombidae, the true conch family.Bouchet, P.; Rosenberg, G. (2011)Lambis Röding, 1798 Accessed through: World Re ...

''. The cladogram was based on

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

sequences of both nuclear

histone H3 Histone H3 is one of the five main histones involved in the structure of chromatin in eukaryotic cells. Featuring a main globular domain and a long N-terminal end, N-terminal tail, H3 is involved with the structure of the nucleosomes of the 'b ...

and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) protein-coding

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

regions. In this proposed phylogeny, ''Strombus epidromis'' (= ''Labiostrombus epidromis''), '' Strombus vittatus'' (= ''Doxander vittatus'') and '' Strombus canarium'' (= ''Laevistrombus canarium'') are closely related and appear to share a

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. According to modern evolutionary biology, all living beings could be descendants of a unique ancestor commonl ...

References

* Cotton, B.C. 1953. ''No. 3. Strombidae.'' Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia, Malacological Section 4 pp. 1 pl. [ * Abbott, R.T. 1960. ''The genus Strombus in the Indo-Pacific''. Indo-Pacific Mollusca 1(2): 33-146 * Wilson, B. 1993. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Kreipl, K. & Poppe, G.T. 1999. ''A Conchological Iconography: The Family Strombidae''. Hackenheim, Germany : ConchBooks 59 pp., 130 pls. * Raven, H 2002. ''Notes on molluscs from NW Borneo. 1. Stromboidea (Gastropoda, Strombidae, Rostellariidae, Seraphidae).'' Vita Malacologica 1: 3-32

External links

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae. ii, 824 pp
Strombidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Strombidae-stub