''Comitas clarae'' is an extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of sea snail, a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod mollusc in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Pseudomelatomidae Pseudomelatomidae is a family of predatory sea snails, marine gastropods included in the superfamily Conoidea (previously Conacea) and part of the Neogastropoda ( Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). In 1995 Kantor elevated the subfamily Pseudomelatominae ...

Description

Dimensions: length 17.5 mm; breadth 6 mm length of the aperture 9 mm. (Original description) The shell is elongate, fusiform, and thin. The posterior part of the

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. Spires are ...

is ribbed, anteriorly the ribs become obsolete. The shoulder of body whorl is obtusely angulate. The entire external surface of the

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). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane flo ...

s is covered with small, closely-set spiral lirae. The

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

is broad. The broad sinus is situated near the suture. This fossil must be mainly distinguished by the absence of any sculpture. The upper part of the spire is ribbed and in the lower whorls, these ribs become obsolete. The periphery of the last whorl is obtusely angular and the whole shell is covered spirally with close fine thread-like lirce. The aperture is broad and the sinus wide, deep, and conspicuous. A peculiarity in this shell is that the lines of growth scarcely show at all.Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales vol. 4 (1880)
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Distribution

This extinct marine species was found in Middle

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

strata in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Comitas Clarae clarae Gastropods described in 1880 Gastropods of Australia