''Turbo saxosus'', common name the stony turban, is a species 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 ...

, 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 ...

mollusk in the family Turbinidae. * Taxonomic status: Some authors place the name in the subgenus ''Turbo (Callopoma)'' .

Description

The length of the shell varies between 20 mm and 54 mm. The imperforate shell has an ovate-conic shape. Its color pattern is brown, olive or gray, above radiately marked, below irregularly maculated with snowy white, sometimes dark, unicolored. The conic spire is acute. The suture is canaliculate. The 5–6

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 floral ...

s are lamellosely densely striate and spirally irregularly lirate. They are carinated, usually more or less nodose at the shoulder, and bear a subsutural series of stout erect tubercles. The rounded aperture measures half the length of the shell. It is white and iridescent within. The arched columella is callous, concave. It has a deep semilunar longitudinal groove and is slightly produced at its base. The operculum is rounded oval, flat and dark chestnut inside, with four or five whorls and a subcentral nucleus. Its outer surface is convex, white, middle portion coarsely granulose, with a deep narrow central pit, bounded by a deep concentric farrow not continuous over the margin of increment, outside of which are three narrow minutely beaded concentric ridges. The margin of increment is granulose. It is an extremely variable species. Frequently several tuberculate lirae encircle the base. And in this strongly nodose variety the incremental striae are usually inconspicuous. In another form the spiral lirae are not noticeably tuberculate.G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This species occurs in the Pacific Ocean from Panama to Peru.

References

* Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2003). ''A Conchological Iconography: The Family Turbinidae, Subfamily Turbininae, Genus Turbo.'' Conchbooks, Hackenheim Germany. * Williams, S.T. (2007). ''Origins and diversification of Indo-West Pacific marine fauna: evolutionary history and biogeography of turban shells (Gastropoda, Turbinidae).'' Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 92, 573–592.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turbo Saxosus saxosus Gastropods described in 1828