Pontiothauma abyssicola

Pontiothauma abyssicola is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.[1]

Pontiothauma abyssicola
Original image of a shell of Pontiothauma abyssicola
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Raphitomidae
Genus: Pontiothauma
Species:
P. abyssicola
Binomial name
Pontiothauma abyssicola
Smith E. A., 1895

Description

The length of the shell attains 50 mm, its diameter 24 mm.

(Original description) The elongate, turreted shell is rather solid, imperforate. Its color is white, the epidermis a thin, pale olive-green. The shell contains six whorls. The depression or concavity at the upper part of the whorls produces a marginate appearance at the suture, and upon the margination the lines of growth are slightly puckered. The spiral striae are somewhat deep and have rather a regular look to the naked eye. The nodose plications at the angulation above do not extend far downwards, but soon become obsolete, so that the lower part of the whorls has a nearly even surface. The white aperture is oblong and measures just under half the length of the shell. The siphonal canal is very short and wide. It is slightly recurved. The thin outer lip is slightly sinuate under the excavation of the suture. The white columella is callous, slightly arcuate in the middle and below obliquely twisted.

Like the type of the genus, this species has neither radula nor operculum. It differs, however, in possessing eyes. [2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Bay of Bengal.

References
  1. Pontiothauma abyssicola Smith E. A., 1895. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 5 April 2010.
  2. E.A. Smith (1895) I.—Natural history notes from H.M. Indian marine survey steamer ‘Investigator,’ commander C. F. Oldham, R.N.—Series II., No. 19. Report upon the Mollusca dredged in the bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea during the season 1893–94; The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology Volume: 16 (6)
  • Tucker, J.K. (2004). "Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 682: 1–1295. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.682.1.1.
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