Amastra Fossilis
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Amastra Fossilis
''Amastra fossilis'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Amastridae. Description The length of the shell attains 18 mm, its diameter 9 mm The species was originally described as a fossil. The shell is dextral, and minutely perforated, with a somewhat solid structure and an elongately conical form. The apex is relatively acute, and the surface is adorned with somewhat irregular growth lines. Under magnification, the whorls of the protoconch exhibit very delicate and regular sulcations. The original color of the living shell remains unknown. The shell comprises 7 whorls, which are slightly convex. The aperture is oblique and ovate, with a simple and very thin peristome. The columellar margin is slightly expanded, partially covering the umbilicus. The columella terminates in a slender, flexuous, thread-like plait, adding a distinctive feature to the structure. The shell differs from '' Amastra conica'' by bei ...
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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), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology (biology), morphology, behaviour, or ecological niche. In addition, palaeontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. About 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a binomial nomenclature, two-part name, a "binomen". The first part of a binomen is the name of a genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name (zoology), specific name or the specific ...
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Aperture (mollusc)
The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where the head-foot part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc. The term ''aperture'' is used for the main opening in gastropod shells, scaphopod shells, and also for ''Nautilus'' and ammonite shells. The word is not used to describe bivalve shells, where a natural opening between the two shell valves in the closed position is usually called a ''gape (bivalve), gape''. Scaphopod shells are tubular, and thus they have two openings: a main anterior aperture and a smaller posterior aperture. As well as the aperture, some gastropod shells have additional openings in their shells for respiration; this is the case in some Fissurellidae (keyhole limpets) where the central smaller opening at the apex (mollusc), apex of the shell is called an orifice, and in the Haliotidae (abalone) where the row of respiratory openings in the shell are also called orifices. In ...
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Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea (, ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant Shield volcano, shield volcano on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the List of U.S. states by elevation, highest point in Hawaii and List of islands by highest point, the island with the second highest high point, behind New Guinea, the world's largest tropical island with multiple peaks that are higher. The peak is about higher than Mauna Loa, its more massive neighbor. Mauna Kea is unusually Topographic prominence, topographically prominent for its height: its prominence from sea level is List of mountain peaks by prominence, 15th in the world among mountains, at ; its prominence from under the ocean is , rivaled only by Mount Everest. This Topographic prominence#Wet prominence and dry prominence, dry prominence is greater than Everest's height above sea level of , and some authorities have labeled Mauna Kea the tallest mountain in the world, from its underwater ba ...
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Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. Hawaii consists of 137 volcanic islands that comprise almost the entire Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian archipelago (the exception, which is outside the state, is Midway Atoll). Spanning , the state is Physical geography, physiographically and Ethnology, ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. Hawaii's ocean coastline is consequently the List of U.S. states and territories by coastline, fourth-longest in the U.S., at about . The eight main islands, from northwest to southeast, are Niihau, Niihau, Kauai, Kauai, Oahu, Oahu, Molokai, Molokai, Lanai, Lānai, Kahoʻolawe, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawaii (island), Hawaii, a ...
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Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or b ...
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Sculpture (mollusc)
Sculpture is a feature of many of the shells of mollusks. It is three-dimensional ornamentation on the outer surface of the shell, as distinct from either the basic shape of the shell itself or the pattern of colouration, if any. Sculpture is a feature found in the shells of gastropods, bivalves, and scaphopods. The word "sculpture" is also applied to surface features of the aptychus of ammonites, and to the outer surface of some calcareous opercula of marine gastropods such as some species in the family Trochidae. Sculpture can be concave or convex, incised into the surface or raised from it. Sometimes the sculpture has microscopic detailing. The term "sculpture" refers only to the calcareous outer layer of shell, and does not include the proteinaceous periostracum, which is in some cases textured even when the underlying shell surface is smooth. In many taxa, there is no sculpture on the shell surface at all, apart from the presence of fine growth lines. The sculp ...
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Amastra Turritella
''Amastra turritella'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Amastridae. ;Subspecies: * ''Amastra turritella aiea'' Hyatt & Pilsbry, 1911 * ''Amastra turritella turritella'' (A. Férussac, 1821) * ''Amastra turritella waiawa'' Hyatt & Pilsbry, 1911 Description The length of the shell can reach 20 mm, its diameter 8.7 mm The shell is dextral, elongate, and conic with fine striations. It consists of six whorls, ending in an obtuse apex. The suture is distinct and simple, not duplicated. The aperture is prominently oblong, with the peristome thickened on the interior margin. The columella is nearly straight, perforate, and features a well-defined rib, adding to its structural detail. The typical form, as illustrated by Ferussac, is characterized by a chestnut-brown coloration. The embryonic shell often appears darker with a purplish hue, although it can also present as whitish-corneous or flesh-colored. The ap ...
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Amastra Conica
''Amastra conica'' is a species of air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Amastridae. ;Subspecies: * ''Amastra conica conica'' Baldwin, 1906 * ''Amastra conica gentilis'' C. M. Cooke, 1917 * ''Amastra conica gyrans'' Hyatt, 1911 * ''Amastra conica kohalensis'' Hyatt & Pilsbry, 1911 Description The length of the shell attains 15.5 mm, its diameter 8 mm. (Later supplemental description by Hyatt, A. & Pilsbry, H. A.) The shell is a fossil specimen. It is dextral and minutely perforated, with a thin, elongately conical shape and an acute apex. Its surface is delicately sculpted with fine growth lines, while the apical whorls exhibit radiating sulcations. The original coloration of the living shell remains unknown. Comprising seven convex whorls, the shell features a well-defined suture. The aperture is oblique and oval, framed by a simple, very thin peristome. The columella ends in a subtly developed fold. The species was discov ...
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Columella (gastropod)
The columella (meaning "little column") or (in older texts) pillar is a central anatomical feature of a coiled snail shell, a gastropod shell. The columella is often only clearly visible as a structure when the shell is broken, sliced in half vertically, or viewed as an X-ray image. The columella runs from the apex of the shell to the midpoint of the undersurface of the shell, or the tip of the siphonal canal in those shells which have a siphonal canal. If a snail shell is visualized as a cone of shelly material which is wrapped around a central axis, then the columella more or less coincides spatially with the central axis of the shell. In the case of shells that have an umbilicus (mollusc), umbilicus, the columella is a hollow structure. The columella of some groups of gastropod shells can have a number of plications or folds (the columellar fold, plaits or plicae), which are usually visible when looking to the inner lip into the Aperture (mollusc), aperture of the shell. These ...
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Whorl (mollusc)
A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral or whorled growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including ''Nautilus'', ''Spirula'' and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the ammonites. A spiral shell can be visualized as consisting of a long Cone (geometry), conical tube, the growth of which is coiled into an overall Helix, helical or planispiral shape, for reasons of both strength and compactness. The number of whorls which exist in an adult shell of a particular species depends on mathematical factors in the geometric growth, as described in D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's classic 1917 book ''On Growth and Form'', and by David Raup. The main factor is how rapidly the conical tube expands (or flares-out) over time. When the rate of expansion is low, such that each subsequent whorl is not that much wider than the previous one, then the adult s ...
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Land Snail
A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shells (those without shells are known as slugs). However, it is not always easy to say which species are terrestrial, because some are more or less amphibious between land and fresh water, and others are relatively amphibious between land and salt water. Land snails are a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group comprising at least ten independent evolutionary transitions to terrestrial life (the last common ancestor of all gastropods was marine). The majority of land snails are pulmonates that have a lung and breathe air. Most of the non-pulmonate land snails belong to lineages in the Caenogastropoda, and tend to have a gill and an operculum (gastropod), operculum. The largest clade of non-pulmonate land snails is the Cyclophoroidea, with more than 7,0 ...
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Protoconch
A protoconch (meaning first or earliest or original shell) is an embryonic or larval shell which occurs in some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod. In older texts it is also called "nucleus". The protoconch may sometimes consist of several whorl (mollusc), whorls, but when this is the case, the whorls show no growth lines. The whorls of the adult shell, which are formed after the protoconch, are known as the teleoconch. The teleoconch starts forming when the larval gastropod becomes a juvenile, and the protoconch may dissolve. Quite often there is a visible line of demarcation where the protoconch ends and the teleoconch begins, and there may be a noticeable change in Sculpture (mollusc), sculpture, or a sudden appearance of sculpture at that point. In some gastropod groups (such as the Architectonicidae), the teleoconch whorls spiral in the opposite direction to the protoconch. In those cases, the shell is called ...
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