''Nassarius sinusigerus'' 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 ...

Nassariidae The Nassariidae, Nassa mud snails (US), or dog whelks (UK) are a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized snails, mostly marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda. These snails have rounded shells with a high spire, an oval ap ...

, the nassa mud snails or dog whelks.

Description

The shell size varies between 6.5 mm and 12 mm

Distribution

This species occurs in the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and in the Indian Ocean off

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, off the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and in the central

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

References

* Dautzenberg, Ph. (1929). ''Mollusques testacés marins de Madagascar''. Faune des Colonies Francaises, Tome III * Cernohorsky W. O. (1984). ''Systematics of the family Nassariidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda).'' Bulletin of the Auckland Institute and Museum 14: 1–356 * Vine, P. (1986). ''Red Sea Invertebrates''. Immel Publishing, London. 224 pp * Lozouet P. & Plaziat J.C. (2008) Mangrove environments and molluscs. Abatan River, Bohol and Panglao Islands, central Philippines. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. 160 pp.

External links

Adams, A. (1852-1853). Catalogue of the species of Nassa, a genus of gasteropodous Mollusca belonging to the family Buccinidae, in the collection of Hugh Cuming, Esq., with the description of some new species. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. (1851) 19: 94-112

A. A. (1860). Descriptions of new shells collected by the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 7: 323-336

Smith, E. A. (1899). Natural history notes from H.M. Indian Marine Survey Steamer 'Investigator,' Commander T. H. Heming, R.N. — Series III., No. 1. On Mollusca from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. ser. 7, 4 (22): 237-251

Melvill, J. C. & Standen, R. (1901). The Mollusca of the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Seas as evidenced mainly through the collections of Mr. F. W. Townsend, 1893-1900, with descriptions of new species. Part 1, Cephalopoda, Gastropoda, Scaphopoda. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1901 (2): 327-460.
* * sinusigerus Gastropods described in 1851 {{Nassariidae-stub