Fulgorariinae

Fulgorariinae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Muricoidea
Family: Volutidae
Subfamily: Fulgorariinae
Pilsbry & Olsson 1954

The subfamily Fulgorariinae contains sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Volutidae. They are characterized by an uniserial radula with tricuspid teeth. Lateral cusps are thickest along the lateral edge, broader and generally longer than the central cusps. The protoconch is large or small, papilliform and often tilted on its vertical axis. Shells are fusiform and show numerous irregular columellar plaits.

Distribution

Most of the species thrive in the benthic zone between 100 and 300 m on mud and shell grit substrate. Rare bathyal species are brought up from 800 to 1000 m. The distribution of the Fulgorariinae extends along the East coast of Asia, from throughout Japan except the Okhotsk Sea, the Pacific coast, the Japan Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea down to the coast of Vietnam.

Fossil History

Some fulgorariid fossils can be traced back to the Oligocene, but possible ancestors of recent species only appeared during the Pliocene only with an abrupt increase after the Late Pliocene, in which almost all the recent species were established.[1][2] Though recent species are now restricted to the Asian Margin of the Pacific Ocean, from Hokkaido, Japan to Vietnam, fossil studies show that species belonging to that subfamily occurred along both the eastern and the western margins of the northern Pacific Ocean.[3] Five taxa, related to the subgenus Psephaea, are described from the Paleocene strata of California, from the lower Miocene to the Pliocene.

Systematic arrangement

In Volutidae, the absence of planktotrophic development (in most groups) does not allow exchange of genetic material between geographically separate populations. Thus, local inbreeding involves a high tendency to speciation.

Genera and subgenera within the Fulgorariinae:

References

  1. Yokohama, M. (1925). Mollusca from the Tertiary Basin of Chichibu. Journal of the Faculty of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo 2 (1): 313-364, pls. 14-15.
  2. Shikama, T. (1967). System and evolution of Japanese fulgorarid gastropoda. Science Report of the National Yokohama University 2 (13): 23-132, pls. 1-17.
  3. Mount, J. D. (1976). A new species of Fulgoraria (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from the Paleocene of Southern California. Journal of Paleontology 50 (1): 86-89, pl. 1, figs. 1-5.

External links


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