''Pyramidella dolabrata'',

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 contra ...

the "giant Atlantic pyram", is a somewhat variable

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of small to medium-sized (max size 36 mm) sea snail, a

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

in the (mostly minute) family

Pyramidellidae Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs. The great majority of species of pyrams are micr ...

, the pyram snails.

Description

The length of the shell varies between 14 mm and 36 mm. The white shell is conical, turreted, polished, elongated, slightly transparent. It has three or four transverse, narrow reddish or chestnut spiral lines on the body whorl, and two on the

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 flo ...

s of the

teleoconch The gastropod shell is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium storage. So ...

. The middle band s always narrowest ; the others are wider and deeper colored. The pointed spire is composed of from ten to twelve distinct, smooth, slightly convex whorls. The body whorl is more inflated than the other whorls. The shell is smooth and umbilicated. The ovate

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

is subrotund at its base, and generally marked within, with very prominent ridges continued upon some specimens even to the edge of the sharp outer lip. The outer lip is often lirate within. The

columella Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (; Arabic: , 4 – ) was a prominent writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His ' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the ...

is slightly arcuated, recurved around the

umbilicus Umbilicus may refer to: *The navel or belly button *Umbilicus (mollusc), a feature of gastropod, Nautilus and Ammonite shell anatomy * ''Umbilicus'' (plant), a genus of over ninety species of perennial flowering plants *Umbilicus urbis Romae The ...

. It is furnished at its base with three folds, the upper of which is more prominent than the others. The small umbilicus is cylindrical, narrow and deep. The maximum recorded

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

length is 36 mm.Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". '' PLoS ONE'' 5(1): e8776. .Kiener (1840). General species and iconography of recent shells : comprising the Massena Museum, the collection of Lamarck, the collection of the Museum of Natural History, and the recent discoveries of travellers; Boston :W.D. Ticknor,1837
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Anatomy

The complete

nucleotide sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are usua ...

of the

mitochondrial genome Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

of ''Pyramidella dolabrata'' has been available since 2008.Grande C., Templado J. & Zardoya R. 2008
''Evolution of gastropod mitochondrial genome arrangements''

BMC Evolutionary Biology ''BMC Ecology and Evolution'' (since January 2021), previously ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' (2001–2020), is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering all fields of evolutionary biology, including phylogenetics and palaeontology. It ...

2008, 8:61.

Distribution

This marine species has a wide distribution. It has been recorded in: * The Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Lesser Antilles * The Atlantic Ocean off the Cape Verdes, St. Helena, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, West Africa * The Indian Ocean : off Madagascar, Mauritius * The Indo-Pacific Region.

Habitat

The minimum recorded depth for this species is 0 m. The maximum recorded depth is 57 m.

References

External links

OBIS: Pyramidella dolabrata
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3166533 Pyramidellidae Gastropods described in 1758 Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Molluscs of the Indian Ocean Molluscs of Madagascar Molluscs of Angola Molluscs of Mauritius Gastropods of Cape Verde Invertebrates of São Tomé and Príncipe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus