''Californiconus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ...

s, 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 ...

s. The experts at

WoRMS The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

place this group of species in the family Conidae, the cone snails, but some other experts placed previously the genus in a proposed

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 ...

, the

Conilithidae Cone snails, or cones, are highly venomous sea snails that constitute the family Conidae. ''Conidae'' is a taxonomic family (previously subfamily) of predatory marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea. The 2014 classification of t ...

. This is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus. Use of this genus in the binomial name of this species was, until 2015, treated by the experts at

as an "alternative representation" of the species. (When the "alternative representation" was not used, this species was still placed in the Linnaean genus ''

Conus ''Conus'' is a genus of venomous and predatory cone snails.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2015). Conus Linnaeus, 1758. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&i ...

''.) In 2015 Puillandre ''et al.'' placed ''Conus californicus'' as the sole member of its own genus as ''

Californiconus californicus ''Californiconus californicus'', common name, commonly called the Californian cone, is a species of small, predatory sea snail in the family Conidae, the cone snails. As both the scientific and common names suggest, this cone is found along the ...

'' This species has always been considered a species with unique characteristics within ''Conidae'', because it shows diverging molecular (including toxicological) and morphological characteristics. Its generalist diet includes fish, other molluscs and worms, contrary to what is the case in other cone snail species, which have more specialized diets.

Distinguishing characteristics

The Tucker & Tenorio taxonomy distinguishes ''Californiconus'' from ''Conus'' in the following ways:Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2009), Systematic Classification of Recent and Fossil Conoidean Gastropods, ConchBooks, Hankenheim, Germany, 295 pp. * Genus ''Conus'' ''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...

'' Linnaeus, 1758 :: Shell characters (living and fossil species) :::The basic shell shape is conical to elongated conical, has a deep anal notch on the shoulder, a smooth

periostracum The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods an ...

and a small operculum. The shoulder of the shell is usually nodulose and 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 " ...

is usually multispiral. Markings often include the presence of tents except for black or white color variants, with the absence of spiral lines of minute tents and textile bars. ::Radular tooth (not known for fossil species) :::The

radula The radula (; : radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by mollusks for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters ...

has an elongated anterior section with serrations and a large exposed terminating cusp, a non-obvious waist, blade is either small or absent and has a short barb, and lacks a basal spur. ::Geographical distribution :::These species are found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region. ::Feeding habits :::These species eat other

s, including

cones In geometry, a cone is a three-dimensional figure that tapers smoothly from a flat base (typically a circle) to a point not contained in the base, called the ''apex'' or '' vertex''. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, ...

. * Genus ''Californiconus'' Tucker & Tenorio, 2009 ::Shell characters (living and fossil species) :::The

is multispiral, the shell is turgid in profile, short, squat and rounded. The shell may be sculpted with spiral lines, but can be relatively smooth. The anterior notch is slight or absent, and the anal notch is shallow. The

is smooth, and the operculum is large. ::Radular tooth (not known for fossils) :::The radular tooth is unique in that it has no basal spur, and the

has five barbs: three barbs on the underside of the tooth, and two barbs on the topside, with one located near the blade, and the other near the shaft. A blunt shaft fold is located just posterior to the waist. The radular tooth does not have an accessory process. ::Geographical distribution :::There is one species in this genus, and it is found only in the Eastern-Pacific region. ::Feeding habits :::These

are generalists. They are: molluscivorous (they prey on

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

and

bivalves Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed by a calcified exoskeleton consis ...

); vermivorous (they prey on polychaete marine worms); and

piscivorous A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted rept ...

(the also prey on fish).

Species list

This list of species is based on the information in the

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

(

) list. Species within the genus ''Californiconus'' include only: * ''

'' Reeve, 1844

Significance of "alternative representation"

Prior to 2009, all

cone In geometry, a cone is a three-dimensional figure that tapers smoothly from a flat base (typically a circle) to a point not contained in the base, called the '' apex'' or '' vertex''. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines ...

species were placed within the family Conidae and were placed in one genus, ''

''. In 2009 however, J.K. Tucker and M.J. Tenorio proposed a classification system for the over 600 recognized

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), ...

that were in the family. Their classification proposed 3 distinct families and 82 genera for the living species of cone snails, including the family Conilithidae. This classification was based upon

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

r differences,

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

cladistics Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to Taxonomy (biology), biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesiz ...

, with comparisons to molecular (DNA) studies. Published accounts of genera within the Conidae (or Conilithidae) that include the genus ''Californiconus'' include J.K. Tucker & M.J. Tenorio (2009), and Bouchet et al. (2011). Testing in order to try to understand the

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

of the Conidae was initially begun by Christopher Meyer and Alan Kohn, and is continuing, particularly with the advent of nuclear DNA testing in addition to mDNA testing. However, in 2011, some experts still prefer to use the traditional classification, where all species are placed in ''

'' within the single family Conidae: for example, according to the 2011 version of the

, all species within the family Conidae are placed within the genus ''

''. The binomial names of species in the 82 cone snail genera listed in Tucker & Tenorio 2009 are recognized by the

as "alternative representations." Debate within the scientific community regarding this issue continues, and additional

studies are being carried out in an attempt to clarify the issue.Petuch & Drolshage (2011) ''Compendium of Florida Fossil Shells, Volume 1'' MDM Publications, Wellington, FL., 432 pp. This alternative representation for ''Californiconus californicus'' is no longer necessary, as in 2015 it was placed in its own genus.

References

External links

The World Register of Marine Species

Gastropods.com ''Conilithidae'', a list of the species and genera in this "new" family
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5021325 Conidae

Distinguishing characteristics

Species list

Significance of "alternative representation"

References

Further reading

External links