Ecphora is the

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

for a group of

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

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 within the family

Muricidae Muricidae is a large and varied taxonomic family of small to large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks, commonly known as murex snails or rock snails. With over 1,700 living species, the Muricidae represent almost 10% of the Neog ...

, the rocks snails or murexes. The common name is based on the first officially described genus, '' Ecphora''. The entire lineage of these ocenebrinid murexes are descended from the

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

murex, '' Tritonopsis''. Ecphoras were indigenous to the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n Eastern Seaboard, being found in marine strata from the Late

until their extinction during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58index fossil Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. "Biostratigraphy." ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Biology ...

Etymology

The name "Ecphora" is Greek, meaning "bearing out." The word was originally used by

Vitruvius Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissan ...

to signify the projecture of a member or moulding of a column, and here refers to the distinctive "T-shaped" ribs that project from the shell.Oxford English Dictionary, "Ecphora" entry.

Subdivisions

There are at least 70 recognized species in eight genera, and one subgenus of ecphoras recognized. *'' Rapanecphora'' from Priaboian stage (

) until the early

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 ...

*'' Chesathais'' from

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

to Aquitanian stage (Miocene) *'' Ecphorosycon'' from Oligocene to Aquitanian stage (Miocene) *'' Siphoecphora'' early Miocene *'' Trisecphora''

*'' Ecphora'' Conrad, 1843 Miocene to Pliocene ***'' E. gardnerae'' (the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

) **'' Planecphora'' Miocene to

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Globecphora'' Miocene *'' Latecphora'' Miocene to Pliocene

Evolution

In his book, The Field Guide to Ecphoras, Edward Petuch proposed that the ecphoras comprised the subfamily "Ecphorinae," a sister-group of the

Rapaninae Rapaninae is a subfamily (biology), subfamily of predatory sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the family (biology), family Muricidae.Houart, R. (2011). Rapaninae. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http:// ...

that were descended from various

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Texan species of the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

murex

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 ...

''Saragana''. However, later research lead Petuch to revise ecphora evolution: now, the ecphoras are thought to be ocenibrenine murexes descended from the Eocene genus ''Tritonopsis'', which is a common fossil in marine Eocene strata of the Southeastern United States. The closest living relatives of the ecphoras is the extant ocenibrine murex genus '' Forreria''. At the end of the Eocene, ''Tritonopsis'' disappeared from the fossil record, leaving behind its two daughter genera, ''Rapanecphora'' and ''Ecphorosycon''. ''Rapanecphora'' would eventually become extinct during the early Miocene, while ''Ecphorosycon'' would undergo several diversification events, one during the Oligocene that produced the genus ''Chesathais'', and two events during the early Miocene that produced the genera ''Siphoecphora'' and ''Trisecphora''. The three-ribbed ''Trisecphora'' would then give rise to the (mostly) four-ribbed genus ''Ecphora'', and both genera coexisted together with ''Chesathais'' and ''Ecphorosycon'', along with ''Ecphoras subgenus ''Planecphora'', up until midway through the Serravallian stage, when ''Planecphora'' was extirpated from the Eastern American Seaboard (surviving only in coral reefs of Florida), and all ecphora genera up to this time, save for ''Ecphora'', itself, became extinct. During the late Miocene, ''Ecphora'' would then give rise to two more daughter taxa, ''Latecphora'' and ''Globecphora''. These genera persisted until their extinction during the early Pliocene. ''Ecphora'' also persisted, though, its species were slowly pushed south to coral reefs in southern Florida due to climate changes turning the Eastern Seaboard from tropical/subtropical to temperate. Eventually, by the end of the early Pliocene, ''Ecphora'' and ''Planecphora'' were restricted to the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...

atoll, until their extinction due to competition by newer murex genera invading from the Caribbean.

References

Nomenclator Zoologicus info

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3784887 Muricidae Prehistoric gastropods Index fossils Eocene genus first appearances Eocene gastropods Oligocene gastropods Miocene gastropods Pliocene gastropods Piacenzian extinctions Mollusc common names