''Aforia kincaidi'' 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 ...

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

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 ...

Cochlespiridae Cochlespiridae is a taxonomic family of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. This family is not well differentiated morphologically, and there is poor congruence between the molecular and shell characters. ...

Description

The height of the shell attains 29 mm, its diameter 13 mm. (Original description) The shell, waxen white and moderately sized, has a fusiform shape with an acute

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. Spire ...

. 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 i ...

is elongated. The

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 " ...

consists of two smooth, bulbous

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). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

s, followed by five additional whorls. The axial

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 ...

exhibits only faint incremental lines. The spiral sculpture features a very prominent, thin, sharp peripheral keel and fine spiral striae with wider interspaces covering most of the surface. Toward the base, the interspaces become more rounded and coarser in texture. The entire area between the keel and the preceding suture forms the anal fasciole, with a wide arcuate sulcus situated just ahead of the suture. The base of the shell is neatly rounded and tapers at the beginning of the siphonal canal. The outer

lip The lips are a horizontal pair of soft appendages attached to the jaws and are the most visible part of the mouth of many animals, including humans. Mammal lips are soft, movable and serve to facilitate the ingestion of food (e.g. sucklin ...

is thin, sharp, and extends prominently forward. The inner lip is slightly erased. The

columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (, Arabic: ) was a prominent Roman writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture and ancient Roman cuisin ...

slopes obliquely and tapers towards the front, exhibiting a gyrate shape with a minutely pervious axis. The siphonal canal is narrow and slender. The operculum is yellowish, ovate, and features an apical nucleus. United States National Museum, and William Healey Dall. ''Descriptions of new species of Mollusca from the North Pacific Ocean in the collection of the United States National Museum''. 1919
(described as ''Leucosyrinx kincaidi'')

Distribution

This species occurs in the northern Pacific off

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and the

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References

* Abbott R. T. (1974). ''American seashells. The marine Mollusca of the Atlantic and Pacific coast of North America.'' ed. 2. Van Nostrand, New York. 663 pp., 24 pls. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aforia Kincaidi kincaidi Taxa named by William Healey Dall Gastropods described in 1919