''Lucerapex murndaliana'' is an extinct species of

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

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

mollusk in the family

Turridae Turridae is a taxonomic family name for a number of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. MolluscaBase (2018). Turridae H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 (1838). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Specie ...

, the turrids.

Description

Dimensions: length 47 mm; breadth 13 5 mm; length of aperture 20 mm. Original description: 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 composed of three elongate

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 floral ...

s, the initial portion being slightly inflated, whilst the anterior turns are obtusely carinate. The shell is narrow and elongate. It contains ten whorls, slightly convex, and has several bold, irregular, spiral threads or ridges, rather rugose where crossed by growth lines, and somewhat granulated in the neighbourhood of the sinus. 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 is ...

is long, slender, and twisted. The outer lip is serrate. The sinus is large and deep, and situated some distance from the suture. Harris (1897), Catalogue of Tertiary Mollusca in the Department of Geology, British Museum (Natural History) part I p. 39 pl. 2 10 a-d
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Distribution

Fossils of this extinct species were found in

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...

strata at Muddy Creek, Hamilton, Victoria, Australia.

References

External links

GEOLOGICAL TIME SCALE: THE GOUDEY COLLECTION FOSSILS, Mary MacKillop Penola Centre

Museums Victoria Collections

A.W.B. Powell, The Australian Tertiary Mollusca of the Family Turridae; Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum; Vol. 3, No. 1 (20th September, 1944)

Kirstie Rae Thomson (2013), Evolutionary patterns and consequences of developmental mode in Cenozoic gastropods from southeastern Australia; University of Liverpool
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucerapex mMrndaliana murndaliana Gastropods described in 1879 Gastropods of Australia