''Pontiothauma'' is a
genus 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 ...
s, 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 ...
mollusks in the
family Raphitomidae
Raphitomidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.) (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". ''Malacologia'' 47(1-2). . 39 ...
.
Description
The fusiform shell is not umbilicate, anteriorly rostrate and obliquely folded. The shell is spirally furrowed by lirae. The
aperture ends in a short
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 ...
. The simple
columella is not folded. The outer
lip is thin, posteriorly wide but not deeply sinuate. The shell lacks an
operculum.
The enormously expanded rostrum, and the absence of eyes, radula, and operculum, at once separate this genus from any which it approaches in shell-character.
Species
Species within the genus ''Pontiothauma'' include:
* ''
Pontiothauma abyssicola''
Smith E. A., 1895
* ''
Pontiothauma minus''
Smith E. A., 1906
* ''
Pontiothauma mirabile
''Pontiothauma mirabile'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,00 ...
''
Smith E. A., 1895
* ''
Pontiothauma pacei''
Smith E. A., 1906
;Species brought into synonymy:
* ''Pontiothauma ergata''
Hedley, 1916: synonym of ''
Belaturricula ergata
''Belaturricula ergata'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Borsoniidae
Borsoniidae is a monophyletic family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea.Bo ...
''
(Hedley, 1916)
* ''Pontiothauma fusiforme''
Habe, 1962: synonym of ''
Spergo fusiformis''
(Habe, 1962) (original combination)
* ''Pontiothauma hedleyi''
Dell, 1990: synonym of ''
Aforia hedleyi''
(Dell, 1990)
* ''Pontiothauma viridis''
(Okutani, 1966):
synonym of ''
Belomitra viridis
''Belomitra viridis'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Belomitridae
The Belomitridae are a taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Belomitridae Ka ...
''
(Okutani, 1966)
References
* Pace, S. "On the Anatomy of the Prosobranch Genus Pontiothauma, EA Smith." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 28.186 (1903): 455-462.
* Smith, Edgar A. "I.—Natural history notes from HM Indian marine survey steamer ‘Investigator,’commander CF Oldham, RN—Series II., No. 19. Report upon the Mollusca dredged in the bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea during the season 1893–94." Journal of Natural History 16.91 (1895): 1-19.
* Smith, Edgar A. "XXV.—Natural history notes form RIMS ‘Investigator.’—Series III., No. 10. On Mollusca from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea." Journal of Natural History 18.105 (1906): 157-175.
* Powell, A. W. B. "Mollusca of Antarctic and Subantarctic seas." Biogeography and ecology in Antarctica. Springer, Dordrecht, 1965. 333-380.
External links
*
Worldwide Mollusc Species Data Base: Raphitomidae Bouchet, P.; Kantor, Y. I.; Sysoev, A.; Puillandre, N. (2011). A new operational classification of the Conoidea (Gastropoda). Journal of Molluscan Studies. 77(3): 273-308.Kantor, Yuri I., and John D. Taylor. "Foregut anatomy and relationships of raphitomine gastropods (Gastropoda: Conoidea: Raphitominae)." Bollettino Malacologico 38 (2003): 83-110.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3719523
Raphitomidae
Gastropod genera