''Lunella granulata'', common name the granulated moon turban, 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 ...

Turbinidae Turbinidae, the turban snails, are a family of small to large marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Trochoidea.Bouchet, P. (2014). Turbinidae Rafinesque, 1815. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecie ...

, the turban snails.

Description

The size of the shell varies between 20 mm and 40 mm. The umbilicate shell is typically more elongated than ''

Lunella coronata ''Lunella coronata'', common name the crowned turban shell or the coronate moon turban, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails. Description The shell grows to a length of 4 cm, wit ...

'' with an altitude about equalling the diameter. It is finely granulose all over, with subsutural and coronal series of tubercles, and sometimes one or two additional series upon the median part of

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology (biology), morphology of the gastropod shell, shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk ...

.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This marine species occurs from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Notes

Additional information regarding this species: * Taxonomic status: Some authors place the name in the subgenus ''Turbo (Lunella)''

References

* Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2011) ''The family Turbinidae. Subfamily Turbinidae, Genus Turbo. Errata, corrections and new information on the genera Lunella, Modelia and Turbo (vol. I).'' In: G.T. Poppe & K. Groh (eds), A Conchological Iconography. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. pp. 69–72, pls 96–103. Lunella granulata 001

External links

* Chiu, Y. W., Bor, H., Tan, M. S., Lin, H. D., & Jean, C. T. (2013). Phylogeography and genetic differentiation among populations of the moon turban snail ''Lunella granulata'' Gmelin, 1791 (Gastropoda: Turbinidae). International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14(5), 9062–9079. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lunella granulata granulata Gastropods described in 1791 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin