Columbarium spiralis

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Columbarium spiralis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Orthogastropoda
Superorder: Caenogastropoda
Order: Sorbeoconcha
Suborder: Hypsogastropoda
Infraorder: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Buccinoidea
Family: Columbariidae
Genus: Columbarium
Species: C. spiralis
Binomial name
Columbarium spiralis
(A. Adams, 1856)
Synonyms

Fusus spiralis A. Adams, 1856

Columbarium spiralis is a species of very rare deepwater sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Columbariidae, the pagoda shells. This genus is however usually placed in the family Turbinellidae.

(Gastropod taxonomy in general is currently in flux and is under active professional revision. Experts disagree about the exact placement of some families.)

Contents

[edit] Distribution

This species is endemic to the east coast of New Zealand.

[edit] Habitat

This pagoda snail lives at depths of between 40 and 200 m.

[edit] Shell description

This shell is large, with a narrowly conical spire, and a very long straight canal, sometimes gently twisted towards its extremity. The whorls are strongly medially carinated and spinose, with a second carina, sometimes almost as strong, between the periphery and the lower suture, usually with four plain spiral threads on the base and siphonal canal. The spiny nodes on the peripheral keel vary between 11 and 15 per whorl, 12 being the usual number.

The external shell colour is pale yellowish-brown. Some examples have narrow axial light reddish-brown streaks, between the tubercles and tipping the subsidiary spirals.

The shell height is up to 107 mm, and width 28 mm.

[edit] References