''Aspa marginata'' 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 ...

Bursidae The Bursidae, common name "frog snails" or "frog shells", are a small Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of large sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod predatory snails in the clade Littorinimorpha.MolluscaBase eds. (20 ...

, the frog shells.GBIF
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Description

Shells of ''Aspa marginata'' can reach a size of . These shells are quite thick, beige in color, with a smooth surface, a deep

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 ...

and a short spire.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in Western Africa, Senegal and Canary Islands. Aspa marginata 01

Fossil records

This genus is known in the fossil records from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

of Italy and France to the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

of Namibia and Spain (age range: from 15.97 to 0.781 million years ago). Fossilworks
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Cultural aspects

The

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

ized shells have been valued by humans and

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

s.Peresani, Marco, et al.:
An ochered fossil marine shell from the Mousterian of Fumane Cave, Italy.
' PLoS ONE 8.7 (2013): e68572.

Bibliography

* Bernard, P.A. (Ed.) (1984). ''Coquillages du Gabon hells of Gabon'. Pierre A. Bernard: Libreville, Gabon. 140, 75 plates * Gofas, S.; Afonso, J.P.; Brandào, M. (Ed.). (S.a.). ''Conchas e Moluscos de Angola = Coquillages et Mollusques d'Angola. hells and molluscs of Angola'' Universidade Agostinho / Elf Aquitaine Angola: Angola. 140 pp. * 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 * Rolán E., 2005. ''Malacological Fauna From The Cape Verde Archipelago. Part 1, Polyplacophora and Gastropoda.''

References

External links

Conchology

Bursidae Gastropods described in 1791 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin {{Bursidae-stub