''Labiostrombus epidromis'', common name the swan conch, is a

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 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

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Strombidae Strombidae, commonly known as the true conchs, is a taxonomic family of medium-sized to very large sea snails in the superfamily Stromboidea, and the Epifamily Neostromboidae. The term true conchs, being a common name, does not have an exact m ...

, the true conchs.

Description

The typical size of the adult shell varies between 50 and 95 mm.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Central Indo-West Pacific,;off the

Ryukyus The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

, Japan, to Australia (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

), and New Caledonia

Phylogeny

In 2006, Latiolais and colleagues proposed a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

(a tree of descent) that attempts to show the

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

relationships of 34 species within the family Strombidae. The authors analysed 31 species in the genus ''

Strombus ''Strombus'' is a genus of medium to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Strombidae, which comprises the true conchs and their immediate relatives. The genus ''Strombus'' was named by Swedish Naturalist Carl Linnaeus in ...

'' including ''Labiostrombus epidromis'' (referred to as ''Strombus epidromis'' in their analysis), and three species in the allied genus ''

Lambis ''Lambis'' is a genus of large sea snails sometimes known as spider conchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Strombidae, the true conch family.Bouchet, P.; Rosenberg, G. (2011)Lambis Röding, 1798 Accessed through: World Register of Ma ...

''. The cladogram was based on DNA sequences of both nuclear

histone H3 Histone H3 is one of the five main histones involved in the structure of chromatin in eukaryotic cells. Featuring a main globular domain and a long N-terminal tail, H3 is involved with the structure of the nucleosomes of the 'beads on a stri ...

and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) protein-coding

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

regions. In this proposed phylogeny, ''Strombus epidromis'' (= ''Labiostrombus epidromis''), '' Strombus vittatus'' (= ''Doxander vittatus'') and '' Strombus canarium'' (= ''Laevistrombus canarium'') are closely related and appear to share a

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

References

* Cotton, B.C. 1953. ''No. 3. Strombidae.'' Adelaide : Royal Society of South Australia, Malacological Section 4 pp. 1 pl. [ * Abbott, R.T. 1960. ''The genus Strombus in the Indo-Pacific''. Indo-Pacific Mollusca 1(2): 33-146 * Wilson, B. 1993. ''Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods''. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp. * Kreipl, K. & Poppe, G.T. 1999. ''A Conchological Iconography: The Family Strombidae''. Hackenheim, Germany : ConchBooks 59 pp., 130 pls. * Raven, H 2002. ''Notes on molluscs from NW Borneo. 1. Stromboidea (Gastropoda, Strombidae, Rostellariidae, Seraphidae).'' Vita Malacologica 1: 3-32

External links

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae. ii, 824 pp
Strombidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Strombidae-stub